Men's Basketball Falls to Lehigh in Patriot League Championship

Wednesday, March 11

Bethlehem, PA

7 PM

Boston University

17-17,10-8Patriot

Lehigh - PL Final

18-16,11-7Patriot

Boston U.

Lehigh

Men's Basketball Falls to Lehigh in Patriot League Championship

March 11, 2026 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Coach Jones-Defty-McNair Postgame Photo Gallery

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Despite 21 points from sophomore Ben Defty to lead four Terriers in double figures, the No. 4-seed Boston University men's basketball program fell to No. 2-seed Lehigh in the Patriot League Championship on Wednesday evening at Stabler Arena.

BU (17-17) fell victim to eight first-half 3-pointers from the Mountain Hawks (18-16), who pulled in front seven minutes into the contest and did not relinquish the lead from that point to win their first Patriot League title in 14 years.

Defty made 8-of-11 shots from the field and was a perfect 5-of-5 at the charity stripe to lead all players in points. He also hauled in a team-high eight rebounds for the Terriers, who made their first appearance in the conference's championship since 2020. Junior Michael McNair recorded 14 points, while freshmen Chance Gladden and Donte Tisinger Jr. added 11 and 10 points, respectively. Both Defty and Gladden earned PL All-Tournament Team honors for their efforts over the past week in which they helped BU eliminate both 2025 defending champion American at home and 2026 regular season champion Navy on the road.

Though held to his lowest field goal shooting percentage in a month, tournament MVP and the nation's No. 7 points leader Nasir Whitlock paced Lehigh with 18 points by shooting 7-of-8 at the line. Fellow All-Tournament Team member Hank Alvey came up just one rebound shy of a double-double with 14 points, five assists and two blocks. Also named to the team, Joshua Ingram joined Edouard Benoit in tallying 15 points apiece.

HOW IT HAPPENED

After giving up the first five points at a packed Stabler Arena, the Terriers responded with an 8-0 run with two baskets each from Defty and McNair.
The run extended to 12-3 for a 12-8 BU lead, but the home team reeled off nine straight points to regain the lead.
The teams traded baskets for a few minutes, as Tisinger dropped a layup with 7:56 left in the first and cut the deficit to 23-22.
Lehigh would expand upon its lead from there, going 4-for-8 from 3-point range over the final 7:56 in the first half and taking a 41-30 lead into the break.
The Mountain Hawks capped off that run with a buzzer-beating triple, while the Terriers went just 1-for-9 from three in the opening half.
Defty led all scorers with 12 points in the first half on 5-for-5 shooting.
The Terriers struggled from long range throughout the night, missing all seven tries from beyond the arc in the second half.
Faced with the 11-point deficit at the break, BU scored four of the first five points of the latter half to get within eight at 42-34, but that's as close as it would get for the remainder of the game.

GAME NOTES

The Terriers were 19-of-37 (51.3%) from inside the arc, holding a 34-20 advantage in points in the paint.
BU ended the season with a program-record 49.5 field goal shooting percentage, topping the 48.4 FG% set by the 1983-84 squad, while also hitting a record 319 3-pointers to surpass the 300 made in 2009-10.
Defty (15.1 ppg) also ended the campaign as the team's single season record holder in shooting percentage at 69.4 FG%, shattering the previous record of 64.3 FG% held by Nick Havener ('17).
Defty's 57 blocks placed sixth behind four slots occupied by all-time BU blocks leader Tunji Awojobi's ('97) and the No. 4 spot of 64 blocks held by Patrick Hazel ('12).
Owner of the program record for made 3-pointers at 110, McNair cracked the top 10 for points in a season at No. 9 with 574. He also played the second most minutes in program history at 1,226, just six shy of tying John Papale ('16).
Besides totaling the most assists by a Terrier since 2012-13 at 150, Gladden placed second in the record book shooting 86.7 FT%.
Lehigh earned a 36-31 edge in rebounds and outscored BU in second-chance opportunities, 22-18, to prevent the Terriers from winning their third straight game when losing the battle at the boards.
Lehigh finished the night 9-of-19 (.474) from behind the arc, while BU went 1-of-16 (.063) for its lowest output since a 1-of-18 performance at Northeastern back in 2021.
Making their third appearance in the Patriot League title game (2014, 2020), the Terriers finished the season winning nine of their final 11 games.