Lehigh @ Holy Cross

Who will WIN this matchup?

Lehigh Mountain Hawks (8-13)

@ Holy Cross Crusaders (3-15)

Current odds:

Lehigh Mountain Hawks: (-220)

Holy Cross Crusaders: (+190)

• The line for this game is Lehigh by 5 points.

• Standing 6-3 midway through Patriot League play, the Lehigh men’s basketball team hits the road again on Friday to face Holy Cross at 5 p.m. on ESPN+. The game was originally slated for Saturday afternoon, but got moved a day earlier due to the winter storm forecasted in the Northeast. The Mountain Hawks are coming off their second-consecutive impressive Wednesday night win; one week after winning at Navy, Lehigh avenged an earlier loss to Army by beating the Black Knights this time around, 84-71.

• The Mountain Hawks remain in the middle of a very tight top of the Patriot League standings, which sees Colgate in first at 4-1 followed by four times at 6-3 – Lehigh, Army, Navy and Loyola. On Wednesday, the Mountain Hawks led for more than 32 minutes and successfully fought off any Black Knight charges. In the first half, Army opened a 25-21 lead, but Lehigh answered with an 8-0 run – five of the points scored by fifth year Marques Wilson. Army rallied to take a 44-42 second-half lead, but first year Tyler Whitney-Sidney knocked down a 3-pointer and followed with a steal and fast break layup, all in the span of 16 seconds, to give the Mountain Hawks the lead for good.

• Lehigh would up hitting eight of its first 12 and nine of its first 14 second-half 3-pointers in another impressive shooting display (the Mountain Hawks hit nine of their first 10 second-half treys at Boston University Saturday and 10-of-16 in the second half at Bucknell earlier this month). Against Army, Lehigh finished 14-of-30 from deep (46.7 percent), falling just one made three shy of tying the program’s Stabler Arena record.

• Five Mountain Hawks finished in double figures for scoring for the first time since early December against Maryland Eastern Shore. Whitney-Sidney led the way with a career-high 19 points (and career-high four assists). Junior Evan Taylor scored 16, first year Keith Higgins Jr. posted 13, senior Jeameril Wilson had 12 and senior Nic Lynch scored 11. In fact, three Mountain Hawks (Whitney-Sidney, Higgins and Taylor) scored in double figures in the second half alone. Lehigh finished with 51 second-half points, the second time it’s eclipsed 50 in a half this season (along with 53 in the second half at Bucknell).

• Lehigh will face Holy Cross, having won four in a row against the Crusaders – including a 77-69 win on Jan. 10.

• Holy Cross stands 3-15 on the season, 1-5 in Patriot League play with its league victory coming at home vs. Lafayette. Since, the Crusaders lost at Lehigh, then had a pause due to health and safety protocols and followed with losses vs. Bucknell last Saturday and at American Wednesday. Gerrale Gates leads Holy Cross in scoring (15.4) and rebounding (8.4) – including 21.5 and 9.5 in Patriot League play. First year Kyrell Luc is also averaging double figures on the season (11.7).

• Lehigh has won a program-record four straight vs. Holy Cross. That included a sweep of a pair of games last season in Worcester, as the teams played on consecutive days. Then earlier this month on Jan. 10, the Mountain Hawks picked up a 77-69 victory – behind an early 15-0 run – to pull within 43-28 in the all-time series. Overall, Lehigh has won seven of the last eight in the series and is 11-5 over the last 16. Each of the last nine meetings have been decided by eight points or less (Lehigh is 7-2 in that span). Lehigh and Holy Cross first met in 1976, an 84-60 Holy Cross victory, before reconvening for Patriot League play in the early 1990s.