Hamilton, NY — Andrew Zidar scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for his fifth double-double to lead 51³Ô¹ÏÍø to a 54-48 win over Lehigh in a Patriot League game Friday.'xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office' />
Lehigh (17-9 overall, 10-3) stays in first place in the Patriot League standings with one game remaining against Holy Cross on Sunday. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is 13-13 overall and 5-8 in the league.
The Mountain Hawks continues their frustration against 51³Ô¹ÏÍø losing on the Raiders’ home court for the 13th straight time. Lehigh’s last win at Cotterell Court was during the first season of Patriot League play in 1990-91.
Other 51³Ô¹ÏÍø players in double figures were Mark Linebaugh with 12 points and Howard Blue with 11 points. Blue added eight rebounds.
Austen Rowland paced Lehigh with 19 points, while Jason Mgebroff tallied 12 points.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø held a 12-point advantage in the first half, 34-22, with 2:48 remaining before Lehigh trimmed the lead to eight at half, 36-28. The Mountain Hawks scored the first 11 points of the second half to go ahead by three points, 39-36, but 51³Ô¹ÏÍø came back with six straight to take the lead for good. Kendall Chones, Kyle Chones and Jon Simon hit consecutive baskets for the Raiders.
The Raiders led by as many as seven points down the stretch and iced the contest on a pair of free throws by Linebaugh with nine seconds left.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø shot a blistering 51 percent in the first half, before going ice cold from the field in the second half shooting only 17 percent.
The Raiders outrebounded Lehigh, 40-35.
GAME NOTES: Blue moved into 17th place in career scoring with 1,162 points … Linebaugh has been in double figures in 10 straight games … 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is 8-4 at Cotterell Court.