Eastern opened the scoring on a nice up and under move from senior forward Bryan Nadelhoffer. After the hosts drew level on an inside basket at the other end, sophomore Matt Malloy put in a basket on the break from Lenny DiMaria. Two free throws for Lehigh preceeded a three pointer from David Volpe and a Bobby Black fadaway jumper that pushed the Eastern to 9-5 before a Mike Johnson eighteen footer from the left wing put the Eagles up eight.
Down 11-, the bigger Mountain Hawks began to exploit their size advantage and began to win the battle on the boards. Lehigh’s Kyle Neptune led all scorers in the first half with 12 points, and Mike Fischman made good use of his three offensive boards to pick up six points. Volpe led the Eagles, who shot an anemic 32% on the first half, with six on two three point baskets.
After Black hit a three to start second half to cut the lead to nine, Matt Flanagan hit a three on a nice pass from Johnson. A short jumper on the break by Black on a steal and a nice pass from Volpe cut the Mountain Hawk advantage to 37-33. A Flanagan fifteen footer on the break cut the host’s advantage to two and forced a time out from the bench. Out of the timeout, the Mountain Hawks slowed the game down to better utilize their height advantage and put together a 28-9 run over the next ten minutes that put the game out of reach for the upstart Eagles.
Black led all Eagle scorers with 11 points and five boards. Nadelhoffer shot 4-5 from the field to pick up eight points, and Flanagan put up 9 points and five boards. Neptune led all scorers with 18 points and also picked up a game high seven boards for the hosts. Lehigh held a 48-30 advantage on the boards and found their way to the foul line for 21 attempts. The Eagles, who shot their first foul shot late in the second half, only hit three of six from the line for the game.
Coach Nadelhoffer said of the game, “We made a good run at the start of the second half, but once they started to take care of the ball, we were not going to be able to deal with their size on the blocks or on the boards. I’m proud of the way we competed, but to win games we have to shoot better than the 32% we shot tonight and we will have to get to the foul line. I thought David [Volpe] stepped up and played a great floor game tonight.”
Eastern, now 3-1 on the year, returns home for a Thursday night game against Lancaster Bible.