The AU men’s basketball team faced Lehigh University after coming off of two straight overtime games. Senior guard Darius “Pee Wee” Gardner was not interested in making it three. With nine seconds left in regulation against the Mountain Hawks, Gardner hit a game winning three-pointer with eight tenths of a second remaining to give the Eagles the win 62-59. The Eagles are now in a five-way tie for second place in the Patriot League at 3-2 and 10-7 overall. Here are five observations after another nail-biting AU win.
1. Pee Wee does it again
Gardner has made himself the unofficial go-to-guy in crunch time, following his last minute efforts to force overtime against Colgate and another game winning layup versus Mount St. Mary. Following his game winning three-pointer yesterday, it only supports his case. After a relatively slow first half, including an injury scare when he fell off the court trying to save a ball, Gardner came alive in the second half with some big buckets down the stretch. Without Gardner’s clutch play down the stretch, AU could be looking at a 1-4 conference record instead of 3-2.
2. Foul Trouble spoils Jesse Reed’s big night.
Aside from Gardner’s heroics, the story of the game for AU was junior guard Jesse Reed who had another big game with 27 points on 10-14 shooting and six rebounds. Reed nearly matched his career high of 28 points. However, had it not been for foul trouble which kept him out for six minutes, Reed may have been able to surmount his career high. Reed’s second foul came late in the first half on a controversial call. He went up for a block against Lehigh sophomore guard Austin Price that appeared to be clean, but the officials disagreed. The junior picked up his third foul early in the second half, which forced him to sit out. After coming back in midway through the second half, Reed earned his fourth foul forcing head coach Mike Brennan to continuously sub him in and out. AU is 5-0 when Reed scores at least 20 points, so his aggressive surge is a positive sign of things to come.
3. Tim Kempton’s domination of AU’s frontline.
Coming into the game, one of AU's biggest focus points was stopping Lehigh sophomore Tim Kempton. The 6-10 center leads the Mountain Hawks with 13 points and eight rebounds per game. His versatile play meant that AU big men junior Zach Elcano and senior Kevin Panzer would have to play well on both sides of the ball. Unfortunately, Kempton remained too much for Elcano and Panzer to handle. Kempton, the reigning Patriot League rookie of the year set season highs of 24 points and 13 rebounds during the game against the Eagles. Combined, Panzer and Elcano scored only three points and two rebounds. The Eagles pulled out a win, but Kempton still proved himself to be a force to be reckoned with as the Eagles move forward. American’s rebounding has been an issue all season, but the Eagles can’t afford to get beat in the post with their thin front line.
4. Jalen Rhea makes another key appearance
After seeing some rare valuable minutes against Colgate, sophomore guard Jalen Rhea received the call again late in the first half against Lehigh. Brennan put him in with the Eagles facing a zone defense, and AU benefited from Rhea’s ability to stretch the floor with his shooting. Rhea quickly rewarded Brennan by hitting a three-pointer on his first shot attempt. However, Rhea looked lost when the Eagles went back to the princeton offense and missed his next two three-point attempts. He didn’t return in the second half, but his three-point shooting continues to be an asset for the Eagles, particularly in the close conference match-ups.
5. Another slow start at home
After being down for the majority of the first 15 minutes against Colgate on Saturday, the Eagles got off to another rather slow start in Bender Arena against Lehigh. AU trailed for a majority of the first half and despite only being down by as much as five, Lehigh prevented the Eagles from pulling away dramatically in the second half. AU’s slow style of play means that they will rarely be able to blow teams out of game early. However, if they can get off to better starts and keep their solid second half play in tact, the Eagle may experience more relaxing wins and not have to rely on late game heroics as much.
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