The men’s basketball team split games this past week, falling to Lehigh University 64-59 on Saturday before bouncing back with an 81-79 win over Bucknell University on Wednesday.
“The atmosphere was really confident,” sophomore Caleb Williams said about the rivalry matchup. “We felt good going to every game.”
Five minutes after the tip, the Leopards (3-6 Patriot League, 6-16 overall) roared to a 10-3 lead over the Mountain Hawks (5-4 Patriot League, 9-13 overall), with Williams and freshman forward Christian Humphrey-Rembert each tallying four points. The hosts stood their ground with a 17-7 run to take the lead with 6:30 left in the half.
Lehigh produced an 11-2 run over the course of the next two and a half minutes to increase its lead to 12 points. Heading into the locker room, the Maroon and White trailed 38-22.
Coming out of the intermission, the Leopards found some of the spark they had in the initial minutes. Williams contributed seven points to a 19-9 stretch that closed the gap to 52-45.
The Leopards carried the momentum down the stretch to pull within three, trailing 62-59. With 18 seconds remaining in regulation, the Maroon and White gained possession and called a timeout to get off one final shot.
“The rivalry is a big deal to us,” junior guard Mark Butler said. “Our mentality was just attack, attack, attack, don’t let up and keep our foot on the gas because it always feels good to beat your rival.”
Butler inbounded the ball to junior guard Andrew Phillips, whose 3-point attempt hit off the right side of the basket just before the buzzer to seal the loss. Williams led the scoring for the visitors, tallying 18 points.
Looking to rebound against Bucknell (2-7 Patriot League, 6-14 overall), the Leopards got off to a slow start as the visitors jumped to an early 9-2 lead. At the 11-minute mark, the Maroon and White still trailed by eight at 17-9.
“We always have a little bit of a lapse once during the game,” Butler said. “We have a couple stretches where we’re just not playing our best basketball, and it happened at the beginning of the game, so the only way was up.”
A Williams 3-pointer sparked a 13-5 run for the hosts to tie the game at 22 apiece with 6:20 left. The final minutes of the half proved to be neck-and-neck, with Bucknell holding a 39-37 advantage into halftime.
“I was feeling good the whole game,” Williams said. “When they needed me the most, I was really just there to hit the shots.”
Both teams traded shots as the second half kicked off, but the Bison mounted a 10-point lead with 11 minutes left to play. For the next eight minutes, the Maroon and White kept within a couple of points of the Bison, but it was not until three minutes remained that the hosts took their first lead of the game after a pair of Butler free throws.
“We talked about our defensive thoughts,” Butler said. “We knew we had to match a better transition. We just need to be tougher, and those are all things that we can fix.”
Bucknell took the lead after an and-one layup, but senior guard Ryan Pettit reclaimed it after a pair of free throws. He followed those up with a steal and a layup to put them up three. With the foul game ensuing throughout the final minute of play, Williams missed the last of two free throws that would have put the Leopards up three with eight seconds left, but a missed 3-pointer from the Bison secured the 81-79 victory.
Williams scored a career-high 28 points, shooting at a 7-of-11 clip from downtown. Butler capped off a 12-point night with a game-high seven assists.
“I’m just that steady force,” Butler said. “I want to do whatever the team needs me to do, for us to win.
The Leopards will hit the road on Saturday for a matchup against American University (6-3 Patriot League, 13-9 overall).