OPENING TIP
- Lafayette plays its second of three straight at Kirby Sports Center on Wednesday, hosting Lehigh for round two of The Rivalry. The Leopards lost the earlier meeting this season in Bethlehem as a three from sophomore Alex Petrie rang off the rim at the buzzer in an 86-83 defeat.

- The Leopards will tip off at approximately 8:30 p.m. as the second of a doubleheader at Kirby. The Lafayette women will match up with Boston U. in the early game at 6 p.m.

- Senior Paulius Zalys currently sits at 942 career points as he aims to become Lafayette's 45th 1,000-point scorer.

- The Leopards will host welcome Bucknell in the third game of the homestand on Saturday at 2 p.m. 

TEAM TAKEOVER
Wednesday's doubleheader is the 2018-19 Team Takeover night for the men's and women's basketball teams. Similar to Major League Baseball (MLB)'s Players' Weekend, each member of the Leopard teams will be going by their nicknames for the duration of each game. In addition to each player wearing a warm-up with his/her nickname on the back, all content, including videoboard materials, game programs, public address announcements, etc. will feature the nicknames throughout the contest.  

In addition to the use of each player's nickname, Bitmoji's, cartoon caricatures often used in mobile messaging, will also be incorporated into the production for these games. Finally, all of the game's music will be hand-selected by the members of each team, including timeouts with videoboard content associated with chosen songs.

LAST TIME OUT
Lafayette controlled the game for 25 minutes on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center, but couldn't close out the second half as Army came back and outlasted the Leopards by a 69-63 final.

The Leopards, ahead by four at the break, stormed out of the halftime locker room with a 12-4 run that put the lead at 12, 45-33, with 16:26 left. But that momentum ended there as the offense went cold at the 15-minute mark and Army scored 33 of the game's final 48 points to complete out the comeback.

Eighteen turnovers with nine coming in each half were a big story in the game as Army scored 17 points off those takeaways and led 8-2 in fast-break points. The Black Knights also got 41 of their 69 points from their bench as Jordan Fox and Tommy Funk, two of the team's top three scorers, were held to a combined seven points on the day.

Sophomore Alex Petrie had his best game of Patriot League play, scoring a game-high 20 points on 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range. The output was Petrie's highest total since he scored 26 in the Leopards' win over Fairleigh Dickinson on Nov. 25.

Classmate Justin Jaworski chipped in with 15 points to go along with a career-high six rebounds, also finishing 3-of-4 from beyond the arc on the day. A third sophomore, E.J. Stephens, additionally had one of his better games, scoring 10 points on 2-of-4 from distance, his second double-digit scoring performance since the start of Patriot League play.

THE SKINNY ON THE MOUNTAIN HAWKS
Lehigh has been a tough matchup across the Patriot League this season, entering Wednesday's contest at 13-6 overall and 6-2 in conference play, tied for first in the league standings. The Mountain Hawks, the nation's top three-point shooting team at 45.6 percent from distance, were picked to finish atop the league in the Patriot League Preseason Poll after returning four starters from a team that went 16-14 a year ago.

Lehigh boasts four players that average more than 12 points per outing, putting up a 81.2 points per game as a team, more than six points on average higher than the next most prolific offense. Pat Andree leads the way with 14.7 points per game, while Kyle Leufroy, Lance Tejada and Jordan Cohen chip in with 14.3, 14.3 and 12.3 points, respectively. Andree and Tejada sit ninth and 10th in the nation in three-point shooting percentage, converting at 46.8 and 46.7 percent clips from distance, while Cohen is coming off the best game of his career, netting 32 points on 12-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-5 from three-point range, in a 94-78 victory over Boston U. on Saturday.

LAST MEETING
In an offensive thriller in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to open 2019 and Patriot League action, Lafayette came up just shy of knocking off preseason Lehigh by a final score of 86-83.

Ahead 43-35 at halftime and by two following a Justin Jaworski triple with 1:03 left, the final minute didn't go the Leopards way as Lehigh's Lance Tejada answered with a three and Jordan Cohen free throws sealed the final with sophomore Alex Petrie's three at the buzzer ringing off the rim. 

The Maroon and White featured four different players in double-figure scoring, led by 19 with five assists from senior co-captain Paulius Zalys. Sophomore guards Petrie and Jaworski chipped in with 15 points apiece, while junior Lukas Jarrett added 10, all coming in the opening 20 minutes.

Lafayette was solid on the offensive end all night, recording 20 assists to 10 turnovers and shooting 30-of-60 from the field (50.0%) and 14-of-29 from three (48.3%). Unfortunately, Lehigh was a step above, connecting on 11-of-14 from distance (78.6%) and 28-of-48 overall (58.3%).

UPSET WEEK
Wednesday's game marks the second of three straight for the Maroon and White against the three teams currently tied atop the Patriot League standings. The Leopards dropped a 69-63 decision to Army on Saturday and will host Bucknell on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip in Kirby.

COUNT ON PETRIE
Sophomore Alex Petrie, the reigning Patriot League Rookie of the Year, has been incredibly consistent since arriving on College Hill in 2017. A single digit in the scoring column has appeared next to Petrie's name just four times in his last 36 games, averaging 18.3 points per night in league play last season and 14.6 per night in league contests so far in 2018-19. 

THE POLISH RIFLE
Sophomore Justin Jaworski has been on a tear from the three-point line in recent games, moving up to fourth in the nation in three-point percentage at 48.3 percent for the year. Over his last eight outings, Jaworski has gone 29-for-49 from distance (59.2%). At that percentage, it's only fitting that Jaworski leads the Patriot League in three's made per game as well, knocking down 2.9 per contest.

SPREADING THE WEALTH
The win at American on Jan. 19 marked just the third time this season the Leopards had four players register 30 or more minutes in a game with Lukas Jarrett (35), Justin Jaworski (35), E.J. Stephens (31) and Paulius Zalys (30) seeing the bulk of the floor time. The other two contests came in the overtime games against Cornell and Saint Peter's during the non-conference slate. Lafayette has been one of the deepest teams in the Patriot League this year as one of three teams in the conference possessing 10 players that average more than 12 minutes per game.