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Saturday, January 20, 2007
Steals, rebounds and Tim Clifford helped the 'Saders overcome a tough shooting night to stay unbeaten in league play.
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
There are no style points in the standings, just wins and losses. Which suits Holy Cross just fine, because the Crusaders would not have picked up many style points yesterday at American, but they did pick up a key W with a 69-64 overtime victory in front of the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball game in AU's Bender Arena.
"Sometimes the numbers don't tell the true story," said Tim Clifford, who led Holy Cross (14-6 overall, 5-0 Patriot) with 19 points and 9 rebounds.
Clifford was right. Most of the numbers did seem to favor American (9-10, 1-4), aside from those on the scoreboard when the final buzzer sounded. That was especially true of the first 40 minutes, when American hit 50 percent of its shots, held HC to under 40 percent shooting from the floor, had more than twice as many three-pointers (7-3) than the Crusaders and two more free throws.
Suffice to say it was not a game Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard wants to spend a lot of time watching over again on tape. Winning ugly is still winning. On the road, in front of a raucous crowd of 4,775 fans -- mostly rowdy students drawn by the promise of free T-shirts and free food, escaping with your grasp of first place in the league standings still intact is all that matters.
"Winning on the road is a bear. Anytime you can steal one and come away with a victory, you put it in the left-hand column. You don't even look at it," said Willard. "You learn from it, but you don't even look at it."
How Holy Cross was even in the game, let alone ahead the entire second half until Arvydas Eitutavicius tied it with two free throws with 25 second to go in regulation could easily bewilder anyone who didn't look beyond the offensive numbers. If that same casual fan had even a little knowledge of the Holy Cross roster, they'd have been even more befuddled. After all, who'd have thought the Crusaders could still be in a game when Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas were a combined 7 for 21 through 40 minutes.
Simmons, the Patriot League's leading scorer, who has reached double figures in every HC game this season, eventually did it again, finishing with 14 points after going 6 for 6 at the foul line in the overtime. Thomas, who had reached double figures in five straight games coming into this one, didn't score in the OT and finished with 9.
"On the score sheet it looked like we shouldn't even be in it. But we rebounded and did all the little things that don't show up on the scorecard," thomas said.
Slide over to the far right of their lines in the box score, and you'll find some of those little things that told a large part of the story in the Crusaders' seventh straight win. The backcourt pair came in ranked 1-2 in the league in steals and did nothing to lessen that ranking, combining for 10 (5 each) of Holy Cross' 15 thefts as a team.
"Even though they shot the ball very well against us from a percentage standpoint, the steals made a big difference in this basketball game," said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard
All told, Holy Cross forced 21 American turnovers. Between the turnovers, and 12-4 edge on the offensive boards, the Crusaders managed to cobble together enough extra possessions to make up for the poor shooting night.
Including the extra session, Holy Cross shot 39.7 percent from the field. A 1 for 8 overtime period dropped American's final field goal percentage to 43.8 percent, a deceptively low number given the Eagles 20 of 40 effort in regulation. But despite shooting four percentage points lower then AU, the Crusaders actually made more buckets, hitting 24 of 62 to American's 21 of 48 effort.
Clifford's play was a big key. The 6-10 junior dominated inside, especially in the second half and in the overtime, when he never left the floor after being limited to 10 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Led by Clifford's efforts, the Crusaders dominated inside, outscoring AU 38-14 in the paint. That was enough to offset the 49 combined points of American's guard trio of Derrick Mercer (11 points), Andre Ingram (14) and Eitutavicius, who led all scorers with 24 points.
Eitutavicius gave the Crusaders fits all night, going 7 for 12 from the field, including four treys, and 6 for 6 at the foul line. During an 11-minute stretch of the second half, the 6-2 senior from Lithuania singlehandedly kept American in the game, scoring 14 of the Eagles' 18 points during that stretch.
That kept AU close enough to be in position to take advantage of a big defensive stop and a missed free throw by Thomas to send the game to OT. The stop came with Holy Cross up 58-54, in possession of the ball after a Pat Doherty steal. Coming out of a timeout, the Crusaders put the ball in Thomas' hands with 10 seconds on the shot clock and 45 ticks on the game clock.
Thomas' jumper came up short and he was whistled for a foul trying to steal the rebound from Ingram. Ingram hit both free throws to make it a two-point game, Thomas had another chance to put the game out of reach when he was fouled on the inbounds play, but he missed the front end of the one-and-one, allowing Eitutavicius to send it to overtime with a pair of free throws at the other end.
The Crusaders had a chance to pull it out in regulation, but Doherty's long three-pointer with 3.3 seconds to go was an air ball.
In the overtime, Holy Cross jumper out to a 4-point lead on free throws by Clifford and Simmons and never let American overcome that advantage, hitting 9 of 10 foul shots in the extra session while holding AU to 1 for 8 shooting from the floor in overtime.
Holy Cross will be at Colgate Tuesday before returning home for a nationally televised tussle Friday night with Lehigh (9 p.m., ESPNU).
Box score | Postgame audio (Clifford, Thomas, Willard, Jones)
By CHRIS A. COUROGEN
There are no style points in the standings, just wins and losses. Which suits Holy Cross just fine, because the Crusaders would not have picked up many style points yesterday at American, but they did pick up a key W with a 69-64 overtime victory in front of the largest crowd ever to witness a basketball game in AU's Bender Arena.
"Sometimes the numbers don't tell the true story," said Tim Clifford, who led Holy Cross (14-6 overall, 5-0 Patriot) with 19 points and 9 rebounds.
Clifford was right. Most of the numbers did seem to favor American (9-10, 1-4), aside from those on the scoreboard when the final buzzer sounded. That was especially true of the first 40 minutes, when American hit 50 percent of its shots, held HC to under 40 percent shooting from the floor, had more than twice as many three-pointers (7-3) than the Crusaders and two more free throws.
Suffice to say it was not a game Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard wants to spend a lot of time watching over again on tape. Winning ugly is still winning. On the road, in front of a raucous crowd of 4,775 fans -- mostly rowdy students drawn by the promise of free T-shirts and free food, escaping with your grasp of first place in the league standings still intact is all that matters.
"Winning on the road is a bear. Anytime you can steal one and come away with a victory, you put it in the left-hand column. You don't even look at it," said Willard. "You learn from it, but you don't even look at it."
How Holy Cross was even in the game, let alone ahead the entire second half until Arvydas Eitutavicius tied it with two free throws with 25 second to go in regulation could easily bewilder anyone who didn't look beyond the offensive numbers. If that same casual fan had even a little knowledge of the Holy Cross roster, they'd have been even more befuddled. After all, who'd have thought the Crusaders could still be in a game when Keith Simmons and Torey Thomas were a combined 7 for 21 through 40 minutes.
Simmons, the Patriot League's leading scorer, who has reached double figures in every HC game this season, eventually did it again, finishing with 14 points after going 6 for 6 at the foul line in the overtime. Thomas, who had reached double figures in five straight games coming into this one, didn't score in the OT and finished with 9.
"On the score sheet it looked like we shouldn't even be in it. But we rebounded and did all the little things that don't show up on the scorecard," thomas said.
Slide over to the far right of their lines in the box score, and you'll find some of those little things that told a large part of the story in the Crusaders' seventh straight win. The backcourt pair came in ranked 1-2 in the league in steals and did nothing to lessen that ranking, combining for 10 (5 each) of Holy Cross' 15 thefts as a team.
"Even though they shot the ball very well against us from a percentage standpoint, the steals made a big difference in this basketball game," said Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard
All told, Holy Cross forced 21 American turnovers. Between the turnovers, and 12-4 edge on the offensive boards, the Crusaders managed to cobble together enough extra possessions to make up for the poor shooting night.
Including the extra session, Holy Cross shot 39.7 percent from the field. A 1 for 8 overtime period dropped American's final field goal percentage to 43.8 percent, a deceptively low number given the Eagles 20 of 40 effort in regulation. But despite shooting four percentage points lower then AU, the Crusaders actually made more buckets, hitting 24 of 62 to American's 21 of 48 effort.
Clifford's play was a big key. The 6-10 junior dominated inside, especially in the second half and in the overtime, when he never left the floor after being limited to 10 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Led by Clifford's efforts, the Crusaders dominated inside, outscoring AU 38-14 in the paint. That was enough to offset the 49 combined points of American's guard trio of Derrick Mercer (11 points), Andre Ingram (14) and Eitutavicius, who led all scorers with 24 points.
Eitutavicius gave the Crusaders fits all night, going 7 for 12 from the field, including four treys, and 6 for 6 at the foul line. During an 11-minute stretch of the second half, the 6-2 senior from Lithuania singlehandedly kept American in the game, scoring 14 of the Eagles' 18 points during that stretch.
That kept AU close enough to be in position to take advantage of a big defensive stop and a missed free throw by Thomas to send the game to OT. The stop came with Holy Cross up 58-54, in possession of the ball after a Pat Doherty steal. Coming out of a timeout, the Crusaders put the ball in Thomas' hands with 10 seconds on the shot clock and 45 ticks on the game clock.
Thomas' jumper came up short and he was whistled for a foul trying to steal the rebound from Ingram. Ingram hit both free throws to make it a two-point game, Thomas had another chance to put the game out of reach when he was fouled on the inbounds play, but he missed the front end of the one-and-one, allowing Eitutavicius to send it to overtime with a pair of free throws at the other end.
The Crusaders had a chance to pull it out in regulation, but Doherty's long three-pointer with 3.3 seconds to go was an air ball.
In the overtime, Holy Cross jumper out to a 4-point lead on free throws by Clifford and Simmons and never let American overcome that advantage, hitting 9 of 10 foul shots in the extra session while holding AU to 1 for 8 shooting from the floor in overtime.
Holy Cross will be at Colgate Tuesday before returning home for a nationally televised tussle Friday night with Lehigh (9 p.m., ESPNU).
Box score | Postgame audio (Clifford, Thomas, Willard, Jones)
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