Game 11: Gophers Host Lehigh (12-21-19)

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Representing the State of Minnesota!

The Lehigh Mountain Hawks!​

Lehigh University’s (7-2) roster features six Minnesotans headed by a familiar name, senior forward, Hanna Hedstrom. This is Hanna’s and the Mountain Hawks second trip to Williams Arena. Lehigh opened the 2017-18 season (Marlene’s Stollings final one) in Minneapolis with a 73-107 loss to Minnesota (9-1). Hedstrom was the Mountain Hawks leading scorer with 12 points and 7 rebounds. Minnesota’s leading scorers were Gadiva Hubbard and Carlie Wagner each with 22 points. Hubbard was 6-7 from three. Current Gophers playing in the contest were Destiny Pitts, 12 points; Jasmine Brunson, 10 points; Taiye Bello, 4 rebounds and Kehinde Bello 1 rebound.

This season’s leading scorer’s for Lehigh, senior guard Camryn Buhr (14.1 points/game) and senior forward Cameryn Benz (10 point/game), also played in the 2017 match-up. They are currently the only two Mountain Hawks averaging in double figures. Hanna Hedstrom has started all nine games and is averaging 3.1 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. Hedstrom’s 26 assists leads the team. 6’3” sophomore forward Emma Grothaus, from Mahtomedi, moved into the starting lineup against Ball State.

Lehigh was the preseason pick to unseat American University from atop the Patriot League. Camryn Buhr made the preseason First Team. Last season the Mountain Hawks finished 20-10 (12-6 conference) which earned them a third place conference finish.

The Mountain Hawks are off to a solid start incurring their two losses in the Bahamas on last second shots. Against Ball State, Lehigh’s Claire Steele knocked down two free throws tying the game with 2.8 seconds remaining only to have the Cardinals drop a game winning layup as time expired. Two days later, Lehigh led Fordham 57-56 before falling 57-59 to the Rams on a three pointer with .1 second remaining.

Lehigh has also been on the winning side of late game heroics. Trailing Mount St. Mary’s by 7 with 26 seconds remaining, the Mountain Hawks completed the comeback with Megan Walker nailing a three with .1 second remaining for a 66-65 victory. They also outlasted Merrimack (a team that lost by three at Illinois 75-72) in OT 72-68.

Lehigh’s best win was likely versus Seton Hall 75-68. They sliced up an overplaying Pirate defense for 38 points in the paint. For good measure the Mountain Hawks tossed in 7 three pointers and were 16-20 from the line. Buhl lead the team with 20 points and 11 rebounds while Benz chipped in 16 and 10. With a little bit of height and a little bit of movement the Mountain Hawks should be a better test than American University.


Lehigh’s head coach is Sue Troyan in her 25th year. She is 201-215 in the Patriot League. No, Troyan did not take over when Muffet McGraw moved on to Notre Dame it just seems like it. Troyan’s first season was 1995-96 while McGraw’s last season at Lehigh was 1986-87. (One of McGraw’s players at Lehigh was Cathy Engelbert whom was name WNBA commissioner last May). The Mountain Hawks have appeared in three NCAA tournament: 1997, 2009, 2010 and in one WNIT: 2111.

A Lehigh profile on Hannah Hedstrom who finished her degree in three years:

https://www2.lehigh.edu/news/profile-hannah-hedstrom-19-lehigh-womens-basketball

Hannah Hedstrom racked up the accolades in the 2018-19 season, being named to the Patriot League’s All-Defensive Team and its Academic Honor Roll, the Google Cloud Academic All-District 2 Team, and voted, for the second straight season, to the Academic All-Patriot League team. The guard’s 53 steals ranked sixth in the Patriot League, while her 3.2 assists per game was eighth-best. Both led Lehigh’s squad. She also became the ninth player in program history—and the first in nearly 20 years—to join the 300-assist club in a Patriot League quarterfinal win over Colgate. Hedstrom, a three-year starter, returns for her fourth year as a graduate student.

THERE'S A BIG CONNECTION BETWEEN MINNESOTA AND LEHIGH WOMEN’S BASKETBALL. I SAW A

PHOTO ON PRESIDENT JOHN SIMON’S INSTAGRAM WITH TEAM MEMBERS IN MINNESOTA.

So, funny thing about that. I was the first from Minnesota on the [Lehigh] team. Now there are six of us, and one coming next year. And all of us played for the same club. It was like a pipeline. ... Minnesota has a lot of great schools, but there's only one Division I school. I think a lot of high academic girls from Minnesota started to look to the Patriot League schools, once they heard of them and saw what a good experience it is. It really caught on. It's been awesome to be able to be a part of that.

Common Opponent: George Washington. Lehigh defeated George Washington 59-53. Minnesota defeated GW 83-50.

Wins (7): @Delaware State 68-38, @ Merrimack 72-68 (OT), George Washington 59-53, Central Connecticut 70-51, Seton Hall 75-68, Bloomsburg 91-43, and @Mount St. Marys 66-65.

Losses (2): (N) Ball State 52-54 and (N)Fordham 57-59. Both losses came in Nassau, Bahamas.

Probable Starters:

6’1” G Sr Camryn Buhl: 29 minutes/game, 14.1 points/game and 8.2 rebounds/game
6’3” F Sr Cameryn Benz: 20.3 mpg, 10 ppg and 6.3 r/g
6’3” F So Emma Grothaus: 23.1 mpg, 7.9 ppg and 6.6 rpg; Mahtomedi
5’10” g Sr Megan Walker: 17.8 mpg, and 5.3 ppg; Minnetonka
5’9” g Sr Hannah Hedstrom: 22.8 mpg, 3.1 ppg and 3.4 rpg; Minnetonka

Others:

6’1” G Jr Mary Clougherty
5’5” g So Clair Steele
6’2” f Jr Mariah Sexe East Ridge
6’1” f Sr Gena Grundhoffer: Wisconsin Rapids, WI
6’0” f Fr Francine Hottinger: Cretin Durham Hall
5’7” g Fr Anna Harvey: Lakeville

 

[EaganGopher22]

It seems like almost every non-conference team to visit had a MN player (often a senior). Is this a part of the scheduling scheme? Perhaps the other team promising that the MN player will get to play at Williams Arena in front of her friends and family?

 

[Shades]

Lehigh is in Bethlehem, PA, and about half their team is Minnesotans.

They seem like a better team than the “really good team” they played last night (UC Davis), so I hope Whalen is fully prepared to give them credit.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Obviously, Hannah Hedstrom is a terrific recruiter

 

[CutDownTheNet]

Just curious, but does anyone know whether Hanna Hedstrom is perhaps a cousin to Joanna Hedstrom? They went to the same high school (Wayzata). I saw Hanna play in a MN State Tourney game a few years ago, and her playing style reminded me a bit of Joanna, so I thought they might be related.

The distinct memory that I have of Hanna from that game is that she is extremely agile and fast (especially on defense). One thing in particular impressed me enough that I can still visualize it: She seemed to have an uncanny ability to cut through screens without fouling anyone. Almost as if she could make herself paper-thin and just slip through.

Our players will have to set near-perfect screens to block her out (and no inching closer such as to get a moving screen violation - something I’ve noticed we do all too much).

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Joanna and Hannah are sisters. Joanna and their mother played for the Gophers.

 

[FiveOut]

It seems like almost every non-conference team to visit had a MN player (often a senior). Is this a part of the scheduling scheme? Perhaps the other team promising that the MN player will get to play at Williams Arena in front of her friends and family?

This was part of the plan in putting together the non-conference schedule. Definitely sells more tickets. Marlene did what she could to avoid such match-ups. She also had the announcer stop giving the home towns of opposing players. I'd personally like to see that return to the introductions.

 

[adamj95]

This was part of the plan in putting together the non-conference schedule. Definitely sells more tickets. Marlene did what she could to avoid such match-ups. She also had the announcer stop giving the home towns of opposing players. I'd personally like to see that return to the introductions.

Why would she not want the announcer to say the home towns of opposing players?

 

[Shades]

Why would she not want the announcer to say the home towns of opposing players?

Probably emphasizes Stollings’ lack of Minnesota recruiting.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

This was part of the plan in putting together the non-conference schedule. Definitely sells more tickets. Marlene did what she could to avoid such match-ups. She also had the announcer stop giving the home towns of opposing players. I'd personally like to see that return to the introductions.

I've wondered why that stopped. That it was a Marlene request makes sense.

 

[samloupete]

Lehigh is Avery nice campus. Looks very Ivy League-like

 

[FiveOut]

Probably emphasizes Stollings’ lack of Minnesota recruiting.

Bingo!

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Project North Star - Lehigh University Athletics

On Saturday, the Lehigh women's basketball team travels to back to Minneapolis to take on Minnesota. For six Mountain Hawks, this matchup hits close to home – literally.

lehighsports.com

Lehigh: Project Northstar (Recruiting Minnesota)

One of the main draws of Lehigh in the recruiting process actually stems from the state of Minnesota itself, as the University of Minnesota is currently the lone Division I institution in the entire state. Playing Big Ten basketball is tough for a lot of student-athletes there, as just one native Minnesotan currently belongs to the Golden Gopher roster. That, along with rigorous and rewarding academic success played a big role in Hedstrom committing to Lehigh, eventually getting five other current Mountain Hawks to commit as well.

"Athletically, Minnesota has some very strong high school girls basketball in the state, it also has very strong academic high schools that place a heavy emphasis on the STEM fields such as engineering and pre-medicine," Troyan said. "Given these two factors combined with the fact that there is only one Division I college in the state (U of Minn.), we as a coaching staff felt it could be an area that would be good to target as a large amount of Division I prospects end up going out of state for their basketball experience. Most of our players who have come from Minnesota are either studying engineering (Walker, Grothaus, Harvey) or Pre-medicine (Hedstrom, Sexe).

"I think we've taken the approach that 'you can have it all' in terms of choosing a major and studying what you want to study at Lehigh, we will not limit our players in this area. It's our role to help our players manage their experience so they can excel at everything they do."

It didn't take long for the Lehigh experience to catch on with other players as Mariah Sexe, Megan Walker, Emma Grothaus, Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger each committed to Lehigh in the years following. While Hedstrom will leave Lehigh at the end of 2020 and forge a new path, she will leave a legacy as the first and certainly not the last Mountain Hawk from the state of Minnesota.

"It's been a lot of fun just to see how the connection has grown and people in the Minnesota basketball community now understand what Lehigh is now and can put it on a map," Hedstrom said. "That's been really fun, but more importantly, just having girls that I knew of or I've gotten to know so much better from being teammates that have a similar background and have a love for the state of Minnesota with me too has been really fun.

"It's just fun that there's a pipeline there now and our coaches have built relationships with a lot of the programs, both AAU and high school, in Minnesota. That will be fun to see as I graduate and the years go on, how that continues. But I know that in general, the types of players you get out of Minnesota and the people, are a great fit for Lehigh, so I hope that continues."

"The players on our team and the names are familiar by a lot of people over there, especially since they won state championships and were highly sought after," Rigney said. "Obviously a lot of our recruits will be at this game just as Frannie, Megan and Emma did was when they we were there last time."

Anna Harvey and Frannie Hottinger are the most recent class of Minnesotans to don the Brown and White, but won't be the last with another set to come in the Class of 2024. There's no reason to believe that she won't be the last either, as Lehigh has become an official destination for plenty of Minnesota women's basketball players who want this particular experience.

"I wouldn't necessarily say it played a lot into it, but I think there' something to say about how attractive Lehigh is to Minnesota players," said Harvey. "It has the academics, it has the sports, it has a beautiful campus and it has all four seasons which is what I think those dynamics, we're all kind of looking for. It offers a lot. From Minnesota where there aren't many options, it was our best one."

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

6 Lehigh women’s basketball players have homecoming game Saturday at Minnesota. How did they end up in the Lehigh Valley?

When the Lehigh women’s basketball coaching staff recruited Hannah Hedstrom, it learned a lot about the athletic and academic talent Minnesota produced. The Mountain Hawks have since establis…

www.mcall.com

The Morning Call: How did they [Minnesota basketball players] end up in the Lehigh Valley?

Emma Grothaus, sophomore forward

Mahtomedi, Minnesota / Mahtomedi High School
She has played in all nine games, making two starts. She is averaging 7.9 ppg and 6.6 rpg.
On the bond she shares with her fellow Minnesotans
“We all travel together to school, home from school. We all kind of bond over all the things in the Midwest, the culture — it being cold, what we eat, all the sports teams from there, being Vikings fans. It’s nice having five other girls from Minnesota because when we have breaks, everyone else goes home, but everyone from Minnesota or the Midwest stays here. It’s nice being able to be with them and talk about home.”
On what she likes about the Lehigh Valley
“This is going to sound cliché, but it’s not as cold here. It’s so warm. Pennsylvania still has four seasons. I didn’t expect it to be as nice as it is. I walk around in a sweatshirt instead of a winter coat.”

 

[FiveOut]

Prep Girls Hoops also has a story today on the Minnesota-to-Lehigh connection. Here's a link:

Welcome to Lehigh, Minnesota's 'other' D1 program

 

[tripledouble]

It is kind of a cool connection. Looking to the future, I wonder if similar type athletes will end up at St. Thomas when the Tommies go DI. That will at least give some athletes another in-state option.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Prep Girls Hoops also has a story today on the Minnesota-to-Lehigh connection. Here's a link:

Welcome to Lehigh, Minnesota's 'other' D1 program

Cool photo of Joanna and Hannah Hedstrom with Lindsay Whalen from back in the day.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Lindsay Whalen pleased with Gophers women's basketball team's progress in 9-1 start

The Gophers play their final nonconference game Saturday before turning their attention to Big Ten foes.

www.startribune.com

There are still things to work out.

Gophers women's basketball coach Lindsay Whalen has yet to make some final rotation decisions. The importance of ball security is still on top of her list.

As for rotations, Whalen has yet to decide who will be Taiye Bello's backup in the post. Her sister, Kehinde Bello, freshman Klarke Sconiers and Barbora Tomancova are competing there.

In the backcourt, freshman Jasmine Powell will get big minutes off the bench. Mercedes Staples' decision to enter the transfer portal has given Masha Adashchyk an opportunity, too.

 

[tripledouble]

Not a bad tuneup heading into the holidays. Lots of PT for everyone. Interesting to see K. Bello, Sconiers, and Tomancova on the floor at the same time late in the game. Too bad the long 3 by Scalia before the half was waved off. Scalia, Powell, and Adashchyk all in double digits scoring today. Adashchyk looks like she could contribute more as the season progresses. She definitely has some offensive skills and in seeing what we've started to see from her, it's obvious that Staples was below her in the pecking order. Powell, Pitts, and K. Bello all missed two shots in one trip to the FT line today. I doubt that we'll ever see that with Powell and Pitts again. I am hoping that Powell will continue to work on her 3 point shooting. As she is a major threat to drive to the hoop, she's really going to be difficult to defend if she can become a better 3 point shooter. No more NC games. Oh, what a clutter the BIG could be.

 

[EaganGopher22]

It was clear as soon as we jumped out to the early lead this was going to be a mismatch. Of the Lehigh MN players, I thought that perhaps Emma Grothaus could have played for the Gophers as a potential backup to T Bello.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Well, that went well enough to close out the game with a lineup of Powell, Adashchyck, Tomancova, Kehinde Bello and Sconiers. Although Powell and Adashchyck pretty much had to invent plays.

The concerns today were Taiye Bello picking up three fouls and Destiny Pitts first: taking an awkward fall in front of the Gopher bench in the third quarter and second: coming down awkwardly with a rebound in the fourth quarter and leaving the game for good. After the first fall, Destiny continued to play; but seemed to motor down a bit. After the second, she went to the bench where the concern seemed to be her ankle. She limped down the steps; but re-emerged very quickly bounding up the stairs and returned to the bench.

Of Note: Justice Ross participated in the pre-game warm-ups.

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]

Postgame Quotes - University of Minnesota Athletics

Postgame Quotes

gophersports.com

Post Game Quotes:

Minnesota Head Coach Lindsey Whalen On the state of the team heading into Big Ten Play:

“I feel good that we are 10-1. It’s a really hard non-conference schedule this year. Our guys battled every night; every night we asked them to come out here and put us into a position to go into the Big Ten season feeling really good and they did that every night. We will get the film and there are always things to improve on. I thought from the first half to second half our rebounding even improved within the game today. We ended up outrebounding them by 11 in the first half; it was a focus for us to improve upon and we did that. More than anything, we just battled, played hard, and when you do that you give yourself a chance to win every night.”

On the difference heading into Big Ten play between this year and last year:
“Having gone through it now twice, last year when we hit league play, it’s a big step, the Big Ten is a great conference, there are eight teams receiving votes in both polls. That’s more than half the conference that is in the conversation for the NCAA tournament. For us we know that once you get into the conference everything goes up. Your attention to detail goes up, how you outwork your opponent has to go up. All the little things that we talk about all summer and fall, those things just have to go to another level. Your connectedness as a team and your team work really tests you because every three or four nights you are playing against an NCAA tournament team, and not to say that we didn’t in the non-conference but after going through it once last year it is very tough and there are great players. To me, we are in the best position possible but we know that everything gets taken to another level now. But we put ourselves in a really good position to take some time here and enjoy some family time. When we get back on the 26th it is go time against Penn State.”

On how the team took control of the game from the start of the game:
“Yes, I thought we came out and defensively we set the tone right away. I loved how aggressive we were on offense, as well. Got things going to the basket early and a couple klick out 3’s, as well. But defensively these guys play hard, nothing is easy against us. [Lehigh] shot 31% for the game, that’s tough, that is hard to play against when you are as aggressive and physical and determined to impose your will on a team, it is hard to play against. Tonight was a really good example of that for us.”

Minnesota junior Destiny Pitts On how she feels going into conference play this year compared to last year:
“For us it’s just another year of experience in Coach Whalen’s system. Last year it was a little new to us and we were still learning. I feel like the quality of our opponents [this year] really helped us and is going to help us for Big Ten play. So, I think that is a lot different from this time last year.”

Minnesota freshman Jasmine Powell On feeling prepared for her first Big Ten schedule:
“I know that with the schedule that we just had, we will be fully prepared for what’s ahead of us. Coming into our Penn State game, I think that we’ll do great as a team. I think that as long as we are competitive and as long as we play our game, we will be fine.”

 

[Ignatius L Hoops]