The American University women's basketball team fought back from a late double-digit deficit to tie the game, but it was not enough as Lehigh came away with a 57-46 victory in front of 1,147 fans Saturday afternoon in Bender Arena. Liz Leer led the Eagles with 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting while Lisa Strack chipped in nine points and nine rebounds.

American (15-7, 5-3 PL) held as much as a six-point advantage in the opening stages of a low scoring first half on the strength of four early points from Tori Halvorsen. Lehigh (14-9, 4-4 PL) responded to take an 11-10 lead midway through the half and eventually opened up a 20-15 margin with 3:10 to go in the half. Leer fired back with the next four points and Lehigh ended up taking a 22-21 advantage into halftime.

The Mountain Hawks began the second half quickly, scoring the first five points to take a 27-21 lead two minutes into the half. Lehigh eventually extended its lead to double digits, 38-27, with 11:02 to play in the game. The Eagles, however, fought their way back in the game with a 12-2 run -- which included eight points from Nicole Ryan on two threes and a Strack trifecta -- to tie the game at 42. Strack's trifecta at the 6:08 mark marked the first time the game was tied since the score was 15-15 in the first half.

But Lehigh controlled the remainder of the game from that point forward, scoring seven unanswered points to take a 49-42 advantage with 3:29 to go. A pair of Strack free throws trimmed the deficit to five, but that is as close as the Eagles would get down the stretch as Lehigh prevailed with the 11-point victory.

"The thing about coming back from behind in that kind of a situation is you use a lot of energy doing that," remarked Head Coach Matt Corkery. "We needed to sustain it another two, three, four minutes, but it didn't happen … we never really got back on track."

AU struggled offensively throughout the contest, shooting only 29.4 percent from the floor. The Eagles were 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from beyond-the-arc. Lehigh, meanwhile, fared only slightly better at 34.5 percent from the field and 20 percent (3-of-15) from three-point range.

Erica Prosser led Lehigh with a game-high 29 points on 8-of-20 shooting and a perfect 11-for-11 from the foul line. Alexa Williams grabbed a game-best 11 boards.

The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday, February 9 when they host Bucknell. Tip time from Bender Arena is slated for 7 p.m.

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