EASTON, Pa. – Senior co-captain Justin Jaworski continued to impress for the Lafayette men's basketball team on Sunday evening at Kirby Sports Center as he followed up Saturday's career-high 37-point performance with 28 points on Sunday to lead the Leopards to their first win of the 2021 campaign over Lehigh, 82-70.
 
"They beat us on a pretty heart-breaking shot yesterday, so we kind of owed them one. We had to buckle down and bring that energy even when we were tired," Jaworski said. "We're really trying to take it one game at a time and play every game like it's our championship."
 
The Schwenksville, Pa. native has been outstanding in his return after missing the final seven games a season ago due to a knee injury. Prior to that injury, he led the Leopards in scoring as a junior at 17.1 points per game and is currently averaging 32.5 per outing in two games thus far.
 
"I feel great. I feel back to 100%," Jaworski added. "I've never worked so hard in my life to come back from an injury and I'm just playing every game like it could be my last."
 
Jaworski's game-high 28 points came on 10-of-20 shooting from the floor and 5-of-10 from the outside. Twenty of his 28 came in the opening half and he added three rebounds and two assists to round out his stat line.
 
Sophomore Leo O'Boyle, junior Tyrone Perry and senior co-captain E.J. Stephens were the other double-digit contributors for the Leopards, tallying 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively. The third tri-captain, senior Dylan Hastings, led a solid effort on the glass with a game-high nine rebounds, while junior Sean Good added four blocks, four assists, six points and six boards in 25 minutes.
 
The victory moves Lafayette to 1-1 on the young campaign, dropping Lehigh to 1-1 as well.
 
It was a disjointed start for the Maroon and White as Lehigh jumped on the front foot with a 10-2 lead after the first four minutes and a 16-2 advantage at the 13-minute mark. Jaworski and Perry knocked down triples to cut the edge back to 10 at 18-8 with less than 12 minutes on the clock and Lafayette made its move around the 10-minute mark, using a 12-4 run to pull within a bucket at 8:01, 22-20.
 
The Maroon and White really turned it on in the second half of the opening stanza as freshman Jon Brantley's first career triple helped the Leopards take a 32-28 lead under the four-minute mark. The sides traded buckets over the final minutes, taking the game to intermission at a 44-40 score in favor of Lafayette.
 
O'Boyle's triple opened the second-half scoring for the Leopards as both teams took time to settle with the Lafayette lead at three, 52-49 at 15:31 to go. Neither side was able to gain an advantage throughout the middle of the second half as the game remained at a three-point margin through the eight-minute mark, 63-60.
 
Lafayette took control the next five minutes with eight straight into the four-minute media timeout to push the advantage to 10, 74-64. That was all the momentum the Leopards needed to see out an 82-70 final.
 
In this new format, the Maroon and White now have the entire week off to prepare for a two-game set with Bucknell next weekend. The Leopards travel to Lewisburg on Saturday for a 4 p.m. tip and return home to host the Bison on Sunday at 6 p.m.