PARKING ADVISORY
BOSTON – Seeking its second Patriot League title game appearance in four years, the No. 2-seed Boston University men's basketball team will host No. 3 Lehigh in the conference semifinals on Sunday at Case Gym with the CBS Sports Network broadcast set to begin at 12 p.m.
The contest will mark a clash of the top two teams chosen in the preseason poll. Last year's runner-up and this season's preseason favorite, Lehigh finished tied for second in the standings with the Terriers at 12-6. BU owned the tiebreaker and opportunity to host the Mountain Hawks, however, by sweeping the two contests in January. The Terriers will now face the difficult task of trying to post three wins against a top-three seed in one season for the first time since accomplishing the feat against Northeastern in 1989.
BU CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT HISTORY
- The Terriers are 46-30 (.605) all-time in conference tournaments and 3-3 in the Patriot League after reaching the 2014 Championship Final ... BU is 16-6 (.727) in semifinal contests.
- BU clinched a No. 2 seed for the ninth time ... Banned from participating in the 2013 America East tournament due to the move later that year to the Patriot League, the Terriers are 7-0 all-time in the semifinals with a 4-3 record in the title game.
- The Terriers captured their last automatic NCAA berth in 2011 as a No. 2 seed.
LEHIGH NOTES
- On a five-game win streak, Lehigh enters the contest with an RPI ranking of No. 115 having also ranked in the top 100 in 12 different statistical categories.
- Lehigh features a potent offense, ranking 20th nationally in FG% (48.3) and 19th in 3FG% (39.7) ... The Mountain Hawks also rank 116th in scoring offense (75.9 ppg).
- Lehigh is 7-9 on the road compared to 12-2 at home with quality road wins at Bucknell (82-71) and Mississippi State (87-73).
- 2x Patriot League Player of the Year and 6-foot-10 forward Tim Kempton (20.0 ppg, 10.0 rpg) is 10 points away from becoming the second player in PL history and first at Lehigh to reach 2,000 points and 1000 rebounds ... BU Hall of Famer Tunji Awojobi graduated in 1997 as just one of six alongside Alonzo Mourning, Pervis Ellison, Derrick Coleman and David Robinson to record 2,000+ points, 1,000 rebounds and 300 blocked shots despite being just 6-foot-7 ... Kempton currently has 70 blocks.
- Austin Price (13.1 ppg), Kahron Ross (10.1 ppg) and Kyle Leufroy (11.2 ppg) are the other three Mountain Hawks averaging double figures with Ross owning a league-high 5.5 assists per game.
- Lehigh ranks 60th nationally in defensive rebounds per game (26.80) and is holding opponents to 43.5 FG%.
- Lehigh also ranks seventh in FT% (.779) and is only committing 16.8 fouls per game, 51st fewest.
SERIES HISTORY
- Riding a three-game win streak at home and three-ggame overall win streak, the Terriers lead the all-time series, 6-3 ... After BU won the first-ever meeting back in 1968, the teams split in each of the last three years until BU claimed a regular-season sweep this season.
- In the last CBS Sports Network meeting at BU in 2016, John Papale ('16) hit a last-second shot to land at No. 1 in the SportsCenter Top 10 ... BU led by as many as 12 before escaping with the 75-73 victory.
- Lehigh's lone win at BU came in OT in 2014 (82-80) on a last-second layup by Mackey McKnight.
- On Jan. 2, Lehigh opened with a 3FG but never led again ... The Terriers pushed the lead to 62-39 and led 66-49 with 5:33 left ... Shooting 31.3 FG% in the second half, Lehigh cut deficit to 68-59 at 3:47 but never got closer, as BU won, 75-61.
- On Jan. 30, Lehigh scored the first eight points, but BU responded with 12-0 run to take the lead for good ... Fanning hit a career-high five 3FGs en route to 27 points ... BU led 34-25 at the half and shot 52.0 FG% in the second, as Lehigh committed a season-tying 20 turnovers for the 76-59 loss.
