Lehigh 64, Towson 61 -- (box score) It was an inconsistent outing at best for the Mountain Hawks, who shot 54 percent from the field in the first half, 31 percent in the second half. Nonetheless, it is a badly needed win for a program that came in with a four-game losing streak (Sorry, beating a D-III doesn't count).

According to the release on Lehigh's Web site:

Sophomore Jose Olivero scored 16 points to lead the Mountain Hawks, who improve to 5-6 on the season, while the Tigers fall to 3-8 in 2004-05.

Lehigh came out on fire in the first half on the power of Olivero's 14 points, jumping out to a 25-5 lead to start the contest and headed to the locker room with a 38-23 lead. Olivero connected on five of six shots from the field, including a perfect four of four from beyond the arc.

The math majors among you probably noticed that means Olivero only scored two points in the second half. Both of those came at the free throw line. He was 0-for-5 from the field in the second half, 0-for-4 from three-point range.

Reading that Lehigh press release, you'd think this one was never in doubt:

The second half started off much the same as the first with Lehigh hitting timely shots and stifling the Tigers on defense. But little by little, Towson whittled the Mountain Hawk lead down to single digits and was within striking distance in the closing minutes. However Lehigh would not allow Towson to get any closer than two points and actually led for the entire contest. On one possession down the stretch the Mountain Hawks kept the ball on their side of the court for an amazing 2:05 and ended it on a three-pointer from Monserez in the left corner.

Truth be told though, Olivero nearly cost the Hawks the game with poor free throw shooting.

We will let the Baltimore Sun tell the story:

Inside of two minutes, (Towson) then cut the deficit to five on three-pointers by Jake McCartney and Jonathan Pease, then got it down to two when Olivero missed the front end of a one-and-one, and Green made two foul shots at the other end with 11 seconds left.

We got the story of the final 10 seconds from Towson's Web site:

With ten seconds remaining, (Lehigh's Nick) Monserez made the first of two free throws for a 64-61 Lehigh edge, giving Towson one last opportunity to tie the game. However, the Mountain Hawks did a great job defending the three-point line and the Tigers struggled to find a good shot before sophomore guard Trevan Jackson's three-pointer at the buzzer was long.

Once again, no coverage on the Morning Call's Web site. At least they did not ignore local college sports completely. They did manage a story on the Moravian College softball team.