Feb. 24, 2005

Final Stats

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Senior Jason Thomas (Herndon, Va. /Notre Dame Academy) scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Eagles to a 65-61 victory over Lehigh Wednesday evening.

"This has been a tough stretch for us the last couple of weeks," said American University Head Coach Jeff Jones. "Jason (Thomas) really stepped it up and made big plays for us, especially late in the game."

Thomas played well all game but it was late in the game when he really took control. American had a nine-point advantage (52-43) with 6:05 left in the game but Lehigh scored six points in one minute to cut the lead to just three. However, Thomas knocked down a three to stop the 6-0 Lehigh run. Lehigh fought back and cut it to just two points but Thomas knocked down two more jumpers and fed Brayden Billbe (Mercer Island, Wash. /Mercer Island) for another basket to keep the Eagles ahead.

Lehigh took a final run with less than a minute in the game. A free throw by Earl Nurse brought Lehigh to within three with 46 seconds left in the game. Linas Lekavicius (Silale, Lithuania/The Miller School (Va.) converted two free throws with 21 seconds left and after Olivero hit a three-pointer the Mountain Hawks fouled Thomas. Thomas buried both free throws with 12 seconds left to seal the win.

In the second half the teams traded the lead early until Billbe grabbed an offensive rebound and rammed it back in the basket at 12:13. The basket gave American a 37-36 lead and they never trailed again. Thomas hit a three with 11:00 minutes to play to put AU up four points, 40-36. A few possessions later Thomas threw down a dunk off of a Lekavicius (Silale, Lithuania/The Miller School (Va.) assist to put AU up 46-39 with 7:56 left in the contest. With 6:05 left Lekavicius pushed it to nine, 52-43, when he buried a short baseline jumper.

American got off to an early lead at the start of the game as Lekavicius hit a three to start the scoring and Andre Ingram (Richmond, Va. /Highland Springs) followed with two points to give AU a 5-0 lead. Nurse broke the Lehigh drought with a hoop at 17:12 and another one three minutes later to cut the AU margin to one point (5-4). Bryan White gave the Mountain Hawks their first lead of the game at 12:54 with a short jumper.

The Eagles regained the lead as Patrick Okpwae (Yaounde, Cameroon/Berkshire School) scored from inside the paint and Thomas drove to the basket and put the ball in off the glass. After a Lehigh basket Ryan Graham (St. John, New Brunswick/Brewster Academy) knocked down a three and came back and scored a two-pointer on the next AU possession to give American a six-point lead (14-8) with 8:55 in the half. Ingram and Thomas then drained back-to-back threes to push the lead to nine (22-13) and force Lehigh to call a timeout at 6:27. Thomas' second three in 90 seconds pushed the lead to 10 (25-15). However, the Mountain Hawks went on an 8-0 run and it took Thomas' third triple of the half to push the lead back to five with 1:30 left in first stanza. Olivero scored the last four points of the half to cut the Eagle lead to one, 28-27, as the teams headed into halftime.

American dominated the Mountain Hawks on the boards (39-27) and also held them to just 20.0 percent shooting (3-15) from behind the arc.

Lehigh was led by Olivero, who finished with 19 points while Nurse had 12 points and six rebounds.

The Eagles are now 14-11 and more importantly 7-6 in conference play. The win puts them in a tie for third place with Lehigh in the Patriot League standings with just one regular season game left to play. It also guarantees a winning season; the fourth year in a row American has achieved a winning record. It is worth noting because this group of seniors are the first group to achieve four consecutive winning seasons since the 1974-75 squad went 16-10 and finished a run of five years of winning basketball. Finally, the win pushes Jones past Gary Williams in victories at American. Jones now has 73 victories to his credit since taking over prior to the 2000-01 campaign.

The Eagles will next play Navy at Bender Arena on Saturday, Feb. 26. Game time is set for 2 p.m.