South Mountaineer Volume 33, Issue 21

              Volume 33, Number 21
March 5, 1991
Bethlehem, Pa.
Men's hoops finishes with 2nd-best mark
By GLENN HOFMANN
Sports Information Director
WORCESTER, Mass. — Maybe
when a writer from the Worcester
Telegram & Gazette asked Head Coach
Dave Duke, "What do you think your
chances-of making the NIT (National
Invitation Tournament) are" that symbolized just how successful the 1990-
91 season was.
Questions like that aren't usually
asked of Lehigh basketball coaches,
but as the questions have changed so
too has the success of men's basketball. And after the last two years of 18
or more wins on the heels of the Daren
Queenan/Mike Polaha era let there be
no doubt that basketball at Lehigh is as
strong as its ever been...and it will
only get better.
Barring a post-season bid, which
Coach Duke calls "unlikely", Lehigh
will finish with a 19-10 record, second
best in school history. The 10-2 record
in the inaugural season of the Patriot
League was a school record for conference wins.
And yet there is still some major
disappointment on South Mountain after
an exhausting 95-90 overtime loss to
Holy Cross last Friday night which
ended Lehigh's goal of a Patriot League
championship in the tournament's semifinals.
"I would have done anything to
win a title," junior co-captain Bob
Krizansky (Hazleton, Pa.) said afterwards. "I would have climbed up
anybody's back, given an arm and a
leg, dove after any loose ball. I just did
not want to lose."
And"K" says he's bitter the way things
turned out.
"I'm not down on my coach or my
teammates or myself, but I expected a lot
more," he said. "I'm disappointed, but not
in ourselves if you can understand what
I'm saying."
Only one word could be used to describe the K-Man's performance against
Holy Cross...AWESOME. His 31 point
and career-high 16 rebound effort was
described by Holy Cross head coach George
Blaney as "One of the best performances
by an individual in the Hart Center ever."
No one could disagree.
"He just doesn't give up," Coach Duke
said. "He's an overachiever and an example of what we're all about."
Krizansky was named to the All-Tournament Team after averaging 24 points
and 12 rebounds in two tournament games.
And while much of the talk at the Hart
Center after Lehigh's loss centered on the
fact that six of the team's top eight players
including four starters would be returning,
"K" wanted to hear nothing of it.
"Sure we have everyone back and we
should be one of the favorites,"he said.
"But right now I feel real bad for Mike
(O'Hara) and Greg (Berliner). They gave
it their all and I wanted to send them out of
Lehigh like they came in, with a NCAA
Tournament berth."
"We should be the team to beat next
year. I'm putting that on the line right
now," Krizansky said.
The Engineers trailed the Crusaders
41-39 at the half, a surprisingly small
deficit considering that Dave Duke's squad
trailed 35-22 with 6:17 remaining in the
first half. Then came one of Lehigh's
patented offensive explosions, a 19-4 spurt
Lehigh's K-Man played an "AWESOME" game against Holy Cross
in the Patriot League Tournament.
photography by KEITH RAPAPORT
Chuck Penn helped Lehigh when it counted in both Tournament games.
 photography by KEITH RAPAPORT
keyed by 10 points from Krizansky to cut
the margin to a bucket at the break.
The second half was a tightly fought
and very intense affair with no team leading by more than five points.
Holy Cross led 80-78 with 2:18 remaining but Krizansky sent the game into
overtime with a driving layup with 67
seconds remaining and after Aaron Jordan missed a shot at the buzzer the game
went into overtime.
In the overtime Holy Cross led 90-87
after a Jim Nairus three-pointer with 2:20
left, but Lehigh answered right back when
Krizansky hit his fourth "trey" of the
contest. That would be Lehigh's last basket of the game.
"I guess we've got a rivalry going,"
Head Coach Dave Duke said after the
Crusaders beat Lehigh for the first time in
three meetings this year. "We played them
three great games. I was proud of the way
my kids played. We didn't give up. We
had a tremendous year. It's tough that
someone had to lose this one."
Overshadowed by Krizansky's performance was the game of Chuck Penn
(Allentown, Pa.) who scored 17 points
see MEN'S HOOPS page 3
INSIDE
THE
SOUTH
MOUNTAINEER...
Wrestling places four in
ElWAs...
Women's hoops falls to
Army in Tournament...
Jindra honored by
League