Feb. 27, 2008
Box Score
WEST POINT, N.Y. - A cold shooting night in West Point, N.Y. spelled a 65-60 defeat for Lafayette on Wednesday night in Patriot League men's basketball action. Lafayette shot just 33 percent for the game, the team's second-lowest shooting performance of the season.
Lafayette drops into a four-way tie for third place with Bucknell, Colgate and Lehigh, all with 6-7 records in Patriot League play. The Leopards will return to action at American on Saturday in a 2 p.m. tip-off. American is coming off an 83-68 loss at Navy and is tied with Navy for first place in the conference standings.
Three players reached double figures for Lafayette led by 17 from Andrew Brown who scored his 1000th career point in the first half. Matt Betley added 16 while Bilal Abdullah scored 12 points.
Lafayette (15-13, 6-7) led 28-23 at halftime behind 11 points from Betley. Two minutes in, Brown hit a floater and later connected on a three-pointer to become the 36th player in Lafayette history to score 1,000 points. He joined Abdullah who reach the milestone on Jan. 9. The Leopards led by seven on three occasions in the first half.
In the second half, the game was knotted at 39-39 with 10 minutes to go. Army (12-15, 5-8) reeled off a 10-3 run on baskets by four different players to take its largest lead of the game, 49-42, with six and a half minutes remaining.
Lafayette sliced the lead to 54-52 following a pair of free throws by Brown and a 14-foot baseline jumper by Ted Detmer with 2:48 left.
On the next possession, Jarell Brown hit a three at 2:17 to give Army the 57-52 lead. Michael Gruner answered with his own three from straight on to cut the lead to two (57-55) at 1:53.
Lafayette got the ball back, still trailing by two. Abdullah drove to the hoop and was fouled with 1:07 left on the game clock. He made both ends of the one-and-one and tied the game for the fifth time at 57-57. Army's Cleveland Richard, who came in averaging 5.1 points per game, hit a running one-hander from nine feet away. The shot fell with 34 seconds left on the game clock and two seconds on the shot clock.
The Leopards called a timeout with 26 seconds left, but turned the ball over with 14.5 seconds left when play resumed. Lafayette was forced to foul. Doug Williams made both ends of a one-and-one. Back on the offensive end, Brown drove to the hoop and had his shot blocked and Lafayette fouled Josh Miller. Miller made two free throws before Abdullah hit a three on the next possession with two seconds remaining. Richard added two more free throws in the 65-60 final to finish with 12 points.
Lafayette committed just 12 turnovers, the second fewest of the season, and forced 15 Army miscues. Lafayette held its own on the glass, out-rebounded 36-33. Army out-rebounded Lafayette 20-14 in the second half. Everest Schmidt snatched a game-high nine rebounds, including seven on the offensive end.
Marcus Nelson (15), Jarell Brown (11) and Miller (10) joined Richard in double figures for Army.
"We had a number of open looks and if those shots go in, it's a different game," said Lafayette head coach Fran O'Hanlon. "They got us back on our heels. When we miss shots, it has that kind of effect on our team."
GAME NOTES:
• Junior Andrew Brown is 35th in career scoring with 1,012 points. Senior Bilal Abdullah, who hit 1,000 at Princeton (1/9) is 17th with 1,207 career points.
• Ted Detmer has 22 blocks this season, matching his own mark ranked 15th on Lafayette's single-season list set in 2006-07.
• Bilal Abdullah had two treys at Army and is now tied with Winston Davis's single-season mark of 58 set in the 2002-03 season.
• Andrew Brown led the Leopards in assists for the 10th time this season with six against the Black Knights. Brown is 15th on the career assists list with 253.
