Cornell Big Red vs Lehigh Mountain Hawks Prediction, Odds, Best Bets - Week 1

Cornell won a one-point shootout in its opener behind four different three-point shooters. Lehigh gave up 92 points in its opener and now hosts one of the highest scoring teams in the Ivy League at a sprint pace.

The Matchup

Cornell visits Lehigh on Thursday evening at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, on ESPN+, with Cornell a 1.5-point road favorite and a total of 159.5, the highest total in this batch of games. The total is the preview: this is a pace game, and pace is Cornell's whole identity.

Cornell finished 15-13 last season, scoring 88.5 points a game and allowing 83.4, the highest scoring team profile in the Ivy League and one of the leakiest defenses to go with it. Lehigh finished 18-17, scoring 72.7 and allowing 73.8, a steadier and slower team by habit. The openers argued that the habits survived the summer: Cornell beat Pepperdine 86-85 in a one-point shootout at home, and Lehigh lost 92-67 at Saint Louis, giving up 92 points to a team that plays fast.

Lehigh would rather this game be played in the seventies. Everything Cornell does pushes it toward the eighties, and a home team that just spent Monday chasing a fast team around now has to chase a faster one.

Key Factors

Cornell's shooting comes from too many places for a shaky defense to solve. Jacob Beccles scored 19 points against Pepperdine, going 4-of-6 from three, and Mateen Rafiq added 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting with 4 threes of his own. Kaspar Sepp filled the rest of the box score with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists, and Ian Imegwu came off the bench to score 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting from three. A defense has to guard four shooters at once against this team, and Lehigh just showed it cannot slow a fast team down.

Lehigh's side of the ball is the problem. The Mountain Hawks scored 67 points at Saint Louis, led by Caleb Thomas with 12 and Joshua Ingram with 11, and nobody on the roster took over a stretch of that game. Against Cornell, standing still is not an option: the Big Red will score, so Lehigh has to find points it has not found yet this season, at a pace it does not prefer, against a team comfortable playing fast for forty minutes.

The counterpoint is Cornell's defense, which is genuinely leaky and nearly cost it the opener. The Big Red allowed 85 points at home to Pepperdine and won by a single point, and a road favorite that cannot get stops is always one cold shooting stretch from losing outright.

Lehigh's home opener, in a building it knows, against a defense this generous, is a real chance for the Mountain Hawks to look like a different team. The bet is that Cornell's shooting depth is the more reliable thing in this game, and that Lehigh has shown no way to guard four shooters at once.

Every pick is published with its line before the game. Odds via consensus sportsbooks at time of writing and move constantly. Must be 21+. If gambling is a problem, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER.