BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Don't let that score fool you. This was a close one.
Colgate nearly turned the tables on a 28-point defeat to Lehigh in this same arena 47 days earlier but ultimately came up a few points short. The third-seeded Mountain Hawks prevailed 78-68 Wednesday night to eliminate the sixth-seeded Raiders from the Patriot League Tournament.
In the end, the Mountain Hawks had too much Hailey Pascoe.
The senior sharpshooter scored a career-high 28 points on 10-of-13 from the floor and 6-of-9 from 3-point distance. Pascoe made six of her last seven threes and nine of her last 10 overall, including numerous contested shots that all seemed to come at crucial times.
Colgate went in front 62-61 on
Haley Greer's jumper with 5:05 remaining.
Pascoe responded with a 3-pointer.
Mylah Chandler knocked down a jumper in the paint to pull the Raiders with 67-65 with 3:04 showing.
Pascoe responded with a jumper and then another 3-ball. 72-65. Game over.
Pascoe scored six points in the first quarter, six in the second, seven in the third and nine big points in the fourth to eclipse her previous career best of 26 earlier this year against Loyola.
Colgate's
Mackenzie Carroll continued her stellar play against Mountain Hawks, especially in Stabler Arena. The senior captain in her final game led the Raiders in scoring with 11 points, all in the second half. She was 4-of-6 overall and 3-of-4 from downtown.
Carroll in two games not too far from her Doylestown home scored 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting from 3-point distance.
Nia Ahart and
Rachel Thompson added 10 points apiece for the Raiders, while Chandler in her final game led Colgate with 10 rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots.
This was the final game in the careers of Carroll, Chandler,
Summer King and
Chelsey Koren.
Bottom Line
• Lehigh 78, Colgate 68
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate finished at 12-17 for
the program's most wins since 2004-05 (12-18) and best winning percentage (.414) since 2003-04 (21-10, .677).
• Lehigh improved to 21-9 and plays Thursday at second-seeded American in the Patriot League Tournament semifinals.
Stats of the Game
• Chandler finished fifth on the Colgate career charts in both rebounds and blocked shots.
• The Albany native's 10 rebounds pushed her career total to 631, one better than former teammate Josie Stockill '16. Chandler passed four former Raiders on the evening.
• She passed Tricia Oakes '12 with her three blocked shots and finished with 89. That tied Katie Weigert '90 for fifth place.
• Carroll led the Raiders in scoring in both games played in Stabler Arena this year.
• King with two blocked shots in the game finished eighth on the Colgate career chart with 87.
• The Raiders made 28 field goals to Lehigh's 24 and made eight 3-pointers to seven for the Mountain Hawks. But Colgate was just 4-of-6 at the free throw line to Lehigh's 23-of-32.
• Thompson had one steal in the game to post 73 for the season, the 10th-best total in program history.
• Colgate led 19-15 after one quarter, only to watch Lehigh score the first 15 of the second quarter and go in front 30-19. But the Raiders countered with the last 12 points of the period and sprinted to the locker room tied 33-33.
• Lehigh led 50-43 late in the third quarter before Colgate made that final charge in the fourth to take the brief 62-61 lead.
• Lehigh's Pascoe in her 28-point night was just 2-of-5 at the free throw line, the only times she didn't have a Raider defender in her face.
From the Sources
•
Head Coach Bill Cleary (On the game and the season) "There are a lot of parallels between this game and our season. There were a lot of ups and downs, there were times when people probably counted us out, and yet there we were at the end forcing people to take notice.
"Obviously, we're not happy with losing. But we told the players that when the pain of losing goes away, they need to take a step back and look at all they have accomplished this year. These four seniors have done a fantastic job of building us a foundation on solid ground. When we are winning championships here and winning big games here, we can always look back to this season and how this core group set our foundation. This should be our base – we should never be below what we accomplished this season.
"I don't have enough words to express the love and appreciation we have for these four seniors. It's going to be tough not seeing them every day. But I hope they are able to see the big step forward that we have made this year, and it's only going to get better."
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Stabler Arena was 535.
Up Next
• Colgate's season is complete.
