Northwestern fell to Lehigh 85-68 Sunday, dropping its second consecutive matchup to start the season.
Graduate student forward Taylor Williams led the Wildcats (0-2, 0-0 Big Ten) in points with 22 and had 11 rebounds, while graduate student guard Kyla Jones put up 11 points. Jones, a key transfer, scored 28 points in her NU debut Wednesday when the squad lost to Illinois State.
For the Mountain Hawks (2-1, 0-0 Patriot League), forward Lily Fandre scored 26 points as Lehigh won its first-ever matchup over a Big Ten opponent and secured its first win over a Power Four team since 2010.
Lehigh shot an astonishing 55% from three-point range. It felt like the Mountain Hawks couldn’t stop draining threes, and NU wasn’t able to do anything about it.
“I give Lehigh a lot of credit,” NU coach Joe McKeown said. “They shot like the Golden State Warriors.”
The ’Cats seemed to be off to a strong start with an 11-4 lead before the Mountain Hawks went on a 13-0 tear to lead 17-11 in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Lehigh went on a 12-point run and finished the half with a 47-31 lead.
In the first half, Lehigh put up a dominant performance, especially from the three-point line, shooting 10-for-14 from three, compared to NU’s 1-for-4 from three.
The second half wasn’t much better for the ’Cats, though they put up more of a fight, scoring 37 points compared to Lehigh’s 38.
“They just beat us everywhere,” McKeown said. “We’ve got to be a much better rebounding team because the Big Ten is relentless.”
Williams said that to improve, the team needs to focus on maintaining a sense of aggressiveness.
The ’Cats shot just 3-for-13 from beyond the arc Sunday.
“You got to take advantage of those opportunities,” McKeown said of converting three-pointers “We’re better than that. Hopefully we’ll see that as the season progresses.”
Junior guard Caroline Lau was another standout in the game with 6 points, 3 rebounds, and twelve assists.
“Defensively, we’re not disciplined right now,” said Lau.
On a more positive note, NU improved in fouls, with only 16 compared to 29 the previous game.
McKeown said that although the team had fewer fouls this game, they were leaving too many players open.
“I guess we just left people wide open so that we wouldn’t foul,” he said.
The ’Cats will continue their season at home on Thursday as they take on Utah at 6 p.m.
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