Jan. 23, 2004
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Lafayette is the lone unbeaten team in Patriot League play after a classic 111-104 overtime win over archrival Lehigh in front of a sold-out Kirby Sports Center crowd on Friday.
Lafayette (13-4 overall, 4-0 Patriot League), which knocked off three-time defending league champ Holy Cross in overtime on Saturday, is off to its best start in league play since the 1999-2000 season when the Leopards opened 6-0.
Five players scored in double figures for the Leopards, led by a 26-point performance by senior guard Justin DeBerry. The 111 points were the most scored by a Lafayette team since a 115-93 win over Albright on Dec. 13, 1976, and it was the first time Lafayette hit triple digits against Lehigh (10-7, 3-1) since a 115-83 win on Feb. 24, 1971. The 215 combined points scored by Lafayette and Lehigh is a new Kirby Sports Center record.
The tone was set in a first half that featured four ties and four lead changes. After Lehigh had built a five-point lead, the teams traded baskets on 8-of-10 possessions in a three-minute span.
Lafayette took its largest first-half lead, four points, courtesy of a sequence that saw Marcus Harley, who finished with a career-high 17 points, and Sean Knitter, who tallied 19, hit back-to-back three-pointers and Winston Davis nail a jumper in transition. Lehigh rattled off seven straight, however, to regain a three-point lead. The Mountain Hawks led by a point, 41-40, at halftime.
Lafayette looked to take the momentum early in the second half when Rob Dill took a Davis pass on the baseline, dunked over a Lehigh defender and drew the foul. The free throw made it 49-47 Lafayette, but the Mountain Hawks answered with nine straight to take a 56-49 lead with 14:29 left. Lehigh would eventually extend the lead to 61-53, the largest Mountain Hawk lead of the night.
Lafayette quickly reeled off nine straight to take a short-lived 62-61 lead, then the veteran DeBerry took over. With the score even at 66, DeBerry, who scored all seven of Lafayette's overtime points on Saturday at Holy Cross, knocked down a pair of foul shots, a three-pointer, and a lay-in off a Farrell assist to put the Leopards in front, 73-68, with 6:05 left. From there, the Leopards buried their next four shots from the floor to take an 81-71 lead with 3:33 left.
Lafayette still led by four in the final minute but the Leopards, trying to kill the clock, turned the ball over and Lehigh's Jose Olivero buried a three-pointer to cut the Lafayette lead to 89-88 with 31 seconds left. Harley hit 1-of-2 foul shots to bump the lead to 90-88 with 17 seconds left, but Olivero answered with a pair to tie it at 90. Harley drove the length of the court but his shot in the lane rimmed out and Farrell's putback attempt was also off the mark, forcing the game to overtime.
Farrell converted a three-point play to open the scoring in the extra session and DeBerry iced the game with a long three-pointer, steal, pair of free throws and a defensive rebound in a 37-second sequence. The Leopards, who made 35-of-43 foul shots for the game, were 14-of-17 from the stripe in the extra session alone.
DeBerry finished 6-of-10 from the floor and 12-of-12 from the foul line. He also handed out seven assists. Farrell registered a double-double with 11 points and 10 boards, while Davis chipped in 14 points and six assists.
Lehigh's Austen Rowland led four players in double figures with a career-high 35 points on 13-of-23 shooting.
Lafayette returns to action on Sunday, hosting Bucknell at 3:15 p.m.
