Patriot League final: Lehigh likely to beat Boston for third time

There are a handful of major conference tournament title games at the midway point across the country on Wednesday. We’ll focus on the 7 ET Patriot League finals — one of the rare events where all games are on campus with the top seed — as it airs on CBS Sports Network, with No. 4 seed Boston University visiting No. 2 seed Lehigh for automatic bid to the Big Dance.

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Navy was the heavy favorite in the Patriot League tournament after losing just one regular-season championship game, but the Midshipmen had a 14-game winning streak snapped Sunday in a 73-72 home loss to Boston U as a 6.5-point favorite. Tied at 70 with 8.4 seconds left, Navy took five seconds to travel the length of the court for the go-ahead layup.

On the ensuing inbounds play, Terriers freshman Chance Gladden took Donte Tisinger Jr.’s pass and ran toward midcourt, created space with a behind-the-back dribble and launched a 40-footer for the win. Gladden scored BU’s final 10 points and had 24 of his team’s 26 total points in the second half. Gladden, a third-team All-Patriot League and first-team All-Rookie pick, also hit the game-winning step-back jumper in the final seconds of the quarterfinal to beat American, the defending champion in the event.

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BU (17-16, 18-14 ATS) reached its first Patriot League title game by shooting 11-for-24 (.458) from deep — it is among the national leaders in 3-point shooting — and 26-for-47 (.553) from the field overall for the highest shooting percentage of the season recorded by an opponent against Navy. He entered holding opponents to just 29.4 percent from behind the arc. The 14-game winning streak was the second longest nationally.

The Middies had the Patriot League Player of the Year in Austin Benigni and Defensive Player of the Year in Aidan Kehoe, so that was astounding. Navy had been seeking its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1998, several years before anyone on the current team was born. We will now have to hope for an NIT invitation. Boston U hasn’t been to the Big Dance since 2011, when it played in the America East. BU won the 2020 PL tournament, but there was no national championship because of the pandemic.

Lehigh (17-16, 18-13 ATS) took the No. 2 seed from the Patriots by winning a tiebreaker with Colgate. The Mountain Hawks defeated the Raiders, 76-69, in the semifinals behind a career-high 30 points from sophomore Hank Alvey. Lehigh is in its first conference tournament title game since 2024 but hasn’t danced since 2012. That club, led by CJ McCollum, memorably knocked off No. 2 Duke in the round of 32 behind 30 points and six assists from McCollum.

This is the 36th Patriot League tournament title game and the first time with the No. 2 seed against the No. 4 seed. The only fourth seed to win this event was Lafeyette in 2015 and only three teams less than No. 2 have won the conference title, the last being No. 3 Boston U in 2020. The Terriers are 1-1 all-time in this game and the Mountain Hawks are 3-3, losing their last three.

The SportsLine Projection Model gives BU a 51.1% chance to win the game, and CBS Sports’ bracketology puts Boston U in the top four of the NCAA Tournament as a No. 16 seed and facing fellow No. 16 Bethune-Cookman in the Midwest Region. Coach Joe Jones, 60, is seeking his first NCAA Tournament appearance in his 22nd season as a collegiate head coach.

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Lehigh won both regular season meetings, but by only five points combined and one in overtime. Mountain Hawks junior guard Nasir Whitlock dominated those two games, averaging 30.0 points on 58.3% from the field and 4.0 assists. Whitlock made a 3-pointer with 2.4 seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

The Mountain Hawks have played seven overtime games this season (3-4), the most in Division I. They have also played 23 games decided by single digits (14-9), the second most nationally. BU has won nine of 10 with that lone loss coming at Lehigh on February 22. The Terriers have shot 54.7% from the floor over the last six games.

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The only reason Lehigh, which has won five straight, even reached the semifinals of this tournament was because of a half-court buzzer-beater by Whitlock to knock out Holy Cross in the quarters. He’s averaging 25.8 PPG during the winning streak and is tied for the DI lead with eight 30-point games this year.

The average margin of victory in the tournament’s eight games was 4.8 points, five of which were decided by five points or less. I like the Mountain Hawks simply because they are 12-4 SU at home (9-4-1 ATS) and Boston U is 6-11 away. Plus, Whitlock is on fire. The SportsLine projection model features the Terriers 76-75. They have shared five previous meetings in the PL tournament.