Jan. 23, 2010
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lafayette was dealt its first loss of the conference season on Saturday, 75-57, at Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks opened the second half with an 11-2 run and eventually outscored Lafayette 45-22 in the final 20 minutes.
Lafayette remains in first place in the Patriot League standings, now tied with Lehigh. The archrivals share identical 13-7, 4-1 records.
Sophomores Ryan Willen (12) and Jim Mower (10) were the only Leopard players to finish in double figures. Lafayette played without leading scorer Jared Mintz for the final 10 minutes of the game after Mintz took an elbow above the eye that required stitches. Mintz, who has scored in double figures in 17 games, finished with seven points. The Leopards shot a season-low 33 percent from the floor, including 15 percent in the second half, and were 6-of-30 (20 percent) from three-point range.
The Leopards struggled to defend Lehigh senior Zahir Carrington who ended with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting inside. Lehigh's standout freshman C.J. McCollum had a game-high 23 points for the Mountain Hawks, including four three-pointers. Guard John Adams had eight rebounds for Lehigh who outrebounded Lafayette 46-32 with 14 offensive rebounds (seven in each half).
The first half was a back-and-forth affair. A deep three by Mower at 7:42 gave Lafayette its first lead, 21-20. Willen followed with a deep three from the top of the key at 6:10, as Lafayette led 24-20. Lafayette closed out the half with a 9-4 run that included buckets by Mintz and Ben Wheeler to lead 35-30.
In the second half after Lehigh's initial run, Lafayette managed to cut the Lehigh lead to 44-43 at 14:54 after a Michael Gruner free throw. McCollum answered with a three on the next possession and Lehigh ran off seven straight to lead 51-43 with 12:20 left. Just past the nine-minute mark, Carrington converted two free throws to push Lehigh's lead to 60-47 as the Mountain Hawks held a double-digit lead for the remainder of the game.
Lafayette plays its next two games at home, hosting Army on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and American on Saturday at 1 p.m. to close out the first round of Patriot League play.
NOTES:
Lafayette maintains a 137-74 lead in the all-time series.
