Behold, Our First Conference Tournament Buzzer Beater Courtesy of the Patriot League

Lehigh kicked March’s mayhem into high gear Thursday evening.

Nasir Whitlock (1) couldn’t solve national contender Houston in November, but had no trouble with Holy Cross in March. | Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images

The history of college basketball is written all over the Patriot League, from Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson’s early stardom for Bucknell to Navy’s success with center David Robinson in the 1980s.

How fitting, then, that the conference should kick March into high gear with the first conference tournament buzzer-beater of 2026.

The setting: Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa., a historic steel hub tucked in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. With 2.1 seconds left in the Patriot League quarterfinals between Holy Cross and Lehigh Thursday evening, the game was tied at 66.

Mountain Hawks guard Nasir Whitlock—the Patriot League’s leading scorer—received an inbounds pass on his own three-point line. He dribbled once, gathered near the logo, and launched the ball 49 feet toward the Crusaders’ basket.

Swish! Mayhem on Goodman Drive.

NASIR WHITLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!#GoLehigh #SCTop10 #PLTop3 pic.twitter.com/ynDgsn36zX

— Lehigh Men’s Basketball (@LehighMBB) March 6, 2026

Lehigh, basking in the March-specific relief of an extended season, mobbed Whitlock. The Mountain Hawks will play Colgate next, who will traipse south from Hamilton, N.Y., in the campus-site-hosted tournament.

The top seed in the bracket is none other than the Midshipmen—25-6 and basking in their highest win total since Robinson’s heyday in 1987. Navy swept Lehigh in the regular season, winning an 82–79 double-overtime thriller on Jan. 17 before demolishing the Mountain Hawks 72–49 on Feb. 18.

This is March, however. Anything can happen. Ask Lehigh backers who were around in 2012, when guard C.J. McCollum—by leaps and bounds the program’s most famous player—dismissed Duke with a 30-point effort in the first round of the NCAA tournament (in North Carolina, no less).

Most coaches would parlay an upset of that magnitude into a better gig. Mountain Hawks coach Brett Reed, 53, is still trucking along after 19 years with the program. He hasn’t been to the Big Dance since `12—Lehigh’s had just one winning season in the 2020s, in fact—but there’s no time like the present to shock the world. Ask Whitlock.

---