PRINCETON: Gratch enjoys big finish

Hun graduate helps Lehigh to NCAA tourney

By Justin Feil, Assistant Sports Editor
   PISCATAWAY — Emily Gratch’s first year with the Lehigh University women’s basketball team didn’t start as quickly as she hoped.
   It ended, however, with the Hun School graduate being guarded by Auburn’s DeWanna Bonner — the SEC Player of the Year, a virtual lock for All-America and an aspiring WNBA pro.
   ”She’s really good,” Gratch said. “She’s legit.”
   Gratch, though, didn’t back down when covered by the 6-foot-4 Bonner. It’s what made her successful on the biggest stage there is — the NCAA Tournament. Gratch used her solid 6-1 frame to muscle the ball up between Auburn defenders, to grab a rebound and get fouled, and outhustled the Tigers for a fast-break layup to end the first half of Lehigh’s NCAA tournament opener as their leading scorer Saturday with seven points.
   ”I wasn’t nervous. I was more excited,” Gratch said. “It’s a great opportunity. You don’t really get it much. I didn’t want to play into nerves. I just wanted to go out there like they were another team. They’re a great team, but you play what you love so we just went out and did what we could.”
   Gratch’s first-half success earned her the first second-half start of her young collegiate career in the Mountain Hawks’ season-ending 85-49 loss. She finished the game with eight points, four rebounds and a team-high two blocked shots in 19 minutes.
   ”I just took it like it was any other game and any other people we play against,” Gratch said. “I didn’t get down on myself when I missed a shot. I played with everything I had.”
   Gratch did not miss a shot until the second half, just as she didn’t miss a chance once it came her way with the Mountain Hawks. It took a while as she did not play at all in five of Lehigh’s first 11 games going into their Christmas break. It was a far cry from her time at Hun, where she became the school’s second all-time leading scorer with more than 1,500 points.
   ”It was really hard,” Gratch said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. Coming into Christmas break, I was really down on myself. I had a really bad attitude. I was really upset that things didn’t seem to work out. But after Christmas break, I took those five days we had off, and I got more level-headed and changed my attitude and got more positive.”
   Off the court, she tried to fit in more with the Lehigh community. She didn’t put as much pressure on herself on the basketball court, and she was growing more comfortable with the Mountain Hawks’ complex offensive and defensive systems. The fun returned.
   ”In the beginning of the year when I wasn’t playing, I was getting down,” said the Holicong, Pa., resident. “I was not really enjoying basketball. I loved it still, but it was just so much harder to enjoy it when I wasn’t playing.”
   Gratch only missed two of Lehigh’s next 22 games. She scored 12 points in a nine-point win over Army, and a week later earned Patriot League Rookie of the Week honors after a 20-point performance against rival Lafayette. In the Patriot League title game, Gratch’s layup with barely a minute to play and defensive jump ball sealed the Mountain Hawks’ second trip to the NCAA tournament in program history and gave them a program-record 26th win.
   ”She’s rock solid,” said Lehigh head coach Sue Troyan, whose team finished 26-7 and went a school record 12-2 in Patriot play. “She’s got ice in her veins. She really does. She doesn’t get real flustered and she doesn’t get real frazzled out there. She’s been Miss Consistency. She doesn’t get nervous out there.”
   Gratch averaged 10.3 points per game and 5.7 rebounds over the final six games leading up to the NCAA tournament.
   ”She really came on for us the last 10 games,” Troyan said. “I give her so much credit because the first 10 games of our season she was kind of buried in our post rotation. She didn’t even get a sniff. She played two minutes here, three minutes there half the games. She kept coming to practice and worked hard and worked hard.
   ”I think she really showed glimpses of what her future here is going to be like.”
   Gratch had felt prepared after playing all four years at Hun. She capped off a nice finish to her first collegiate season in front of an NCAA tournament crowd that included Raiders head coach Bill Holup.
   ”At Hun, I was able to play how I wanted to play,” Gratch said. “I could shoot outside. I could post up inside. It gave me a lot of freedom to grow. I think that really helped me out. Coach Holup gave me a lot of freedom.”
   Gratch continues to grow at Lehigh. Her success late in her freshman year puts her ahead of schedule in becoming everything the Mountain Hawks envisioned.
   ”I think she’s going to be a really special player, honestly, in our league,” Troyan said. “In the Patriot League, she’s probably not the most athletic kid, but she knows how to score around the basket. You can’t teach somebody who just knows how to put the ball in the basket.
   ”She’s really a character kid. We have great seniors and that’s what she’s looking up to and saying, that’s how it has to be done. And she’s a kid that’s going to be a really strong leader for us too, which I like. She has the qualities that I look for in terms of when I look at her as a junior or senior, she’s someone that’s going to be a captain for our program.”
   It would be quite a finish for Emily Gratch. She’s already off to a promising start.
   ”Lehigh was my first choice,” Gratch said. “It’s been so good for me. The academics are going really well. The team is amazing. The coaches are amazing. I couldn’t have picked a better place to be.
   ”I know going into next year, I could have a bigger role,” she added. “I have to keep working hard this summer, and keep my role from this year and do better things next year.”