(Originally posted Sat. at 7:08 p.m., links added at 9:10 a.m.)

EASTON, Pa. -- Things were not looking good for the Holy Cross men early in the second half of their 77-61 win Saturday at Lafayette. Missed shots and turnovers were piling up quicker than credit card interest charges. Trailing the homestanding Leopards by 5 points, with their starting center was sitting on the bench with 4 fouls and more than 15 minutes left on the clock, the ingredients for an upset were in the kettle, just waiting to be stirred.

How bad did thing seem at that point? When asked after the game what went through his mind when 6-10 Tim Clifford picked up his third and fourth fouls in quick succession shortly after the halftime intermission, Willard replied, "Prayers, lots of prayers."

It's doubtful that God actually determined the outcome of basketball games. After all, we all know He works in mysterious ways, and there was no mystery about what turned the game around for the Crusaders (13-10 overall, 6-2 Patriot League). With the chips down and the game on the line, Holy Cross relied on what has been a bedrock of the program since Willard returned to his alma mater seven seasons ago.

"Our basketball team is built on defense," said Willard.

So was this win. When Clifford sat down, Lafayette (9-12, 3-5) held a 40-35 lead. It took the Leopards over two minutes to get another field goal. That bucket, an Andrew Brown layup, was the only interruption in the 15-2 run Holy Cross used to take control of the game.

The defensive intensity was there from the start of the second half. Even though the Crusaders only points in the first six minutes of the half came on a pair of Clifford layups, Lafayette's lead never got bigger than the five points it had been at the break.

"It took us a while to get going, but we were able to hold them. They never were able to get separation," Willard said.

Once the Crusaders scoring got on track, the defense seemed get even tougher. The Crusaders held Lafayette to five field goals the entire second half. Three of those came in the first seven minutes.

"Obviously we did a better job defensively in the second half. . . . They had five field goals in the second half, which is great from our standpoint," Willard said.

Defense was a big part of the run that turned the game around. Lafayette had only 11 turnovers in the game, but three of them came during that stretch, leading to 7 quick points for Holy Cross.

Once the Crusaders offense got on track, they were on a roll. Of the 77 points HC put up, 40 came in the final 14 minutes. Most of those came from the hands of Kevin Hamilton and Keith Simmons, who led four Crusaders in double figures with 22 points each. Hamilton had 14 of his in that stretch, Simmons 11. Point guard Torey Thomas (11) and Clifford (10) also scored in double figures for HC.

After shooting 11 for 30 (36.7 percent) in the first half, Holy Cross hit 13 of 22 (59.1 percent) in the second. They also did a much better job of taking care of the basketball in the second half, giving away only six turnovers after having 14 in the first 20 minutes.

Another key for Holy Cross was rebounding. No doubt the halftime deficit would have been greater had the Crusaders not grabbed as many of their own missed shots as Lafayette did. Holy Cross' 11 offensive boards helped make up for most of the possessions lost by the turnovers. At the same time, second chances were rare for Lafayette, which managed only three offensive rebounds in the half. The Crusaders domination of the glass continued in the second half, with HC piling up a season-high 50 rebounds. Lafayette's 24 boards tied an opposition low set Wednesday night by Navy.

Hamilton, whose 13 rebounds gave him his first double-double of the season, led the HC effort on the boards. Hamilton, Thomas (8 rebounds) and Simmons (7) gave the Crusaders backcourt more boards than the entire Lafayette team.

Andrei Capusan was the lone bright spot for the Leopards. The slender, 6-8 senior from Romania used a variety of short jumpers and crafty post moves to score 22 points, fouling out Clifford and HC backup center Kevin Hyland in the process. Capusan also led Lafayette with seven rebounds.

The win capped a tough three-game road swing that saw the Crusaders wrap two long bus rides to the Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley around a flight to Navy in a span of eight days. Holy Cross now returns to the Hart Center for three straight home games, with visits by Army (Wed.) and Navy (Feb. 15) wrapped around a highly anticipated matchup Saturday with league-leading Bucknell.

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