![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/IMG_8701-e1455307454554-200x300.jpg\" "\\"IMG_8701\\"")
Defeat. It was this unspeakable emotion\u00a0Thursday night, after so much had happened for the Lehigh boys basketball team to get back on the court.<\/p>\nDefeat. It was this unspeakable emotion\u00a0Thursday night, after so much had happened for the Lehigh boys basketball team to get back on the court.<\/p>\n
Basketball wasn\u2019t the story. It was Lehigh.<\/p>\n
And the Lightning, which had their entire roster available for the Region 6A-3 quarterfinal game at Golden Gate, had looked like the superior team for stretches, even building up a 12-point lead early in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
But the Titans, as all teams do, made two runs. And the Lightning couldn\u2019t stop them.<\/p>\n
Capitalizing on an injury to starting point guard Stef\u2019An Strawder, Golden Gate chipped away at the game in the second half, eventually using a last-second shot by Derick Charles to claim a 68-66 victory, ending the Lightning\u2019s hopes of a third straight trip to the Region 6A-3 final and the promise of a state playoff appearance.<\/p>\n
But within 9 minutes on Thursday, Lehigh lost Strawder to a hip injury after a drive through the lane.<\/p>\n
He tried twice to get back on the court, forcing two long 3-pointers in his short minutes back on the court. But he was ruled out with 2:55 left in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started hurting more and more, so I just had to go out,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was disappointing to me. I wanted to be out there to help my team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
By then, the Titans had leaned on the strength of a 10-2 run that cut a 12-point deficit into 4-point game. Once Strawder went out a second time, Golden Gate began to step on the gas again, going on a 13-0 run to start the third quarter that pushed its lead to 10, 61-51.<\/p>\n
The injury changed Lehigh\u2019s pace, and it ultimately shook the Lightning for large stretches.<\/p>\n
Without its floor general, the Lightning were less likely to penetrate on offense and forced shots, sputtering its offensive flow.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very big blow,\u201d Lehigh Senior head coach Dawn McNew said. \u201cHe\u2019s a significant scorer for us offensively. But he just does a lot for us as a floor general, keeping everyone composed. When you lose a leader like that, it hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lehigh couldn\u2019t get a final shot off with 2 seconds left in the game.<\/p>\n
Thomas finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds in the loss, while Martin added 16 and Edwards had 14. Strawder had 10 points, all coming in the first half.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Defeat. It was this unspeakable emotion\u00a0Thursday night, after so much had happened for the Lehigh boys basketball team to get back on the court. Basketball wasn\u2019t the story. It was… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,85],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38842"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}