Lehigh Builds First-Half Lead, Holds Off Tiger Comeback

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After suffering through a tough-shooting first half, the Princeton men's basketball team found itself down 22 points to Lehigh at the break and mounted a comeback, but the Tigers ended up just short of closing the gap in an 85-76 loss Wednesday night in Jadwin Gym.

Princeton shot 30.3 percent before the break and went 0 of 10 from 3 before improving that to 54.8 percent from the field in the second half including 7 of 12 from 3. Lehigh shot 58.1 percent before the break, including 6 of 11 from 3, and only cooled off to 45.2 percent from the field in the second half while going 1 of 5 from deep.

Devin Cannady finished with a season-best 27 points, two off his career best, while hitting five threes to move into seventh place on Princeton's all-time career list with 164, passing Sydney Johnson '97 (162).

In their quest to dig out of the halftime hole, the Tigers got the deficit down to eight just before the midway point of the second half and again with more than six minutes to play before going no further until Princeton made one last run inside the final five minutes. A 13-2 stretch for the Tigers cut a 12-point Lehigh lead at 73-61 with 5:42 to play into a two-point Mountain Hawk lead at 75-73 with 92 seconds to go before Lehigh pushed it back to four on a Lance Tejada bucket with 1:02 to go.

Princeton again had the deficit down to two at 77-75 with 57 seconds left before Lehigh answered with a Jordan Cohen basket with 34 seconds left, and an Amir Bell 3 on Princeton's ensuing possession was off-target. Lehigh went 6 of 6 from the stripe in the final half-minute to seal it.

Princeton had four players in double figures with Myles Stephens adding 15 points, Bell chipping in 12 and rookie Sebastian Much adding 10 to put him in double figures for the second time in three games.

The Tigers will head south for a test against No. 10 (AP)/13 (Coaches) Miami (Fla.) in the HoopHall Miami Invitational at AmericanAirlines Arena, home of the Miami Heat, Saturday at 8 p.m. on ESPNU.

Postgame Notes

• Senior Amir Bell posted a season-high and team-high eight rebounds, one off his career best set two seasons ago against Saint Peter's.

• Sophomore Will Gladson made his season debut after recovering from a knee ailment.

• Sophomore Jose Morales played a career-high 25 minutes, scoring eight points.

• Freshman Ryan Schwieger grabbed a career-high five rebounds.

• Princeton's .292 3-point clip marked the first time the Tigers didn't shoot better than 30 percent from 3 this season.

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