Mountain Hawks guard Tiwaun Hawkins made one ofhis free throws in the double-bonus situation foran 82-79 lead. Then the Crimson had another chanceat a tie when Clemente attempted a spot-upthree-pointer from the left corner. He missedlong, however, and Hess corralled the rebound anddrew Beam's foul. Hess's free throws opened up an84-79 advantage.
Clemente played 27 minutes and scored 16points, but shot only 2-of-7 from beyond the arc.
The Crimson had one final opportunity tocontest the lead trailing 84-81 with 1:01 left.Playing ball-control to run down the shot clock,Eppehimer controlled and shook Long off a pick,driving to the hole for an uncontested basket butmissing off the back of the rim.
Handerhan tipped the rebound and Hill scrambledfor it, getting a touch before the ball fell outof bounds on the baseline. Again, a toss-up callwent Lehigh's way as the zebras ruled Hill sent itout with 28.9 seconds to play. The Mountain Hawksmade 5-of-6 from the line thereafter to seal thewin.
"These two teams know each other so well thatit took big plays to make the difference,"Mentesena said. "It's no mystery, we do a lot ofthe same things, and it seems thatphilosophically, the kids understand each other."
Harvard trailed 43-33 at the half but strungtogether an 18-7 run keyed by Fisher's eightpoints in the paint on 4-of-4 shooting during thefirst six minutes of the second half.
Hill capped the run when he took Clemente'sgive-and-go dish on the right side of the key anddrove for a layup, then hit a free throw tocomplete a three-point play. The sequence gaveHarvard its last lead of the evening at 53-50 with14:06 remaining.
The Crimson also contained Eppehimer, who didnot score until 14:41 remained.
"In the second half we were playing him black,which means we tried to keep him from touching theball," Long said. "Since once he got the ball, hewas just sick. I was denying him up and down thefloor and it worked. When he didn't have the ballwe were all right."
Harvard travels to Marist tomorrow for anothernon-league date.
This loss puts everything in perspective,"Sullivan said. "We need a better understanding ofthe defensive end. Lehigh is not a Big East team.They're a team that's at our level. I want tobelieve we're somewhere in between the team thatbeat Boston College and the team that lost [onSaturday]."