Army Basketball Drops Contest at Lehigh, 76-61

BETHLEHEM, PA – Army West Point women’s basketball (21-6, 13-4 Patriot League) fell by a score of 76-61 to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks (24-5, 15-2 Patriot League) in a battle between the top two teams in the conference on Saturday afternoon.

Trinity Hardy (5-9 FG) and Reese Ericson (4-11 3PT) each led the Black Knights with 15 points as Fiona Hastick added 14 with a team-best seven rebound and four steals.

The Black Knights got out to fast start offensively, posting 19 first quarter points.

Ericson led the way with nine, connecting on a pair of three-pointers while getting fouled on a third and converting all three foul shots.

Camryn Tade added a triple to put Army up 19-9 early, but the Mountain Hawks connected on a pair of threes of their own to close the quarter and bring the score to 19-15.

Lehigh made it an eventually 11-0 run to put the home side up 20-19, as Army battled back with a bucket from Hardy and three from Hastick which put Army back ahead 25-22.

The Mountain Hawks would then go on another run, this time a 13-0 spurt, to put themselves ahead by double-digits.

Kya Smith put in a pair of buckets just before the half, but Lehigh outscored the Black Knights 27-13 in the second quarter to take a 42-32 lead into halftime.

The third saw a back-and-forth affair, as Army cut it down to seven at 56-49 heading into the fourth quarter.

Army got back-to-back threes in the early stages of the fourth from Hardy and Ericson to cut the lead down to four at 59-55 with over eight minutes remaining, but the Mountain Hawks responded with the next five to maintain the multi-possession lead.

With Army trailing by nine with four minutes left, Lehigh’s Meghan O’Brien netted the next four including a dagger three to put the Mountain Hawks up by 13 with the eventual final score reading 76-61.

With the win, Lehigh clinched the Patriot League regular season title as the Mountain Hawks will serve as the No. 1 seed in the PL Tournament. Army is now locked into the No. 2 seed as it holds the tiebreaker over Colgate.

The Black Knights will wrap up the regular season at Holy Cross on Wednesday night with opening tip set for 6:00 p.m.