Feb. 4, 2006

Box Score

EASTON, Pa. (www.lafayette.edu) - Lafayette scored 12 straight points while holding Holy Cross scoreless for over six minutes in the middle of the second half to upset the defending Patriot League champion Crusaders by a score of 54-49 in women's basketball on Saturday afternoon at Kirby Sports Center.

The win is Lafayette's first against Holy Cross since a 75-69 home victory on Feb. 15, 1998. The Crusaders had won 20 straight, including a 78-39 decision a month ago in Worcester, Mass. They entered with a 6-1 league record and shared the top spot in the standings with Bucknell, but fall to 6-2. Lafayette won its seventh game of the season for the first time since 2000-01 and improved to 2-6 in the Patriot League.

Lindsay Myers led the Leopards with 17 points and Kara Stetler pitched in with 14. Both players grabbed seven rebounds to help Lafayette to a 45-40 margin on the glass, its first rebounding advantage against a league opponent this season. Val Gomez scored only three points but had six rebounds, three steals and a career-high seven assists.

The Leopards trailed 35-30, one of several times that Holy Cross led by five early in the second stanza, after Jessica Conte hit a layup with 12:00 on the clock. The bucket was the Crusaders' last score until Brittany Keil made a layin with 5:48 remaining.

Stetler scored on a backdoor layup off a pass from Gomez to start the Leopards' run. She hit a three-pointer with 8:32 left to give Lafayette a 37-35 lead, its first advantage since going ahead 21-20 with 54 seconds to go in the first half. Myers followed with a three-point play and Vanessa Van De Venter hit a baseline jumper to put the Leopards ahead by seven.

Sophomore forward Brittany Purr had a layup with 5:30 to go, her first points since returning from illness that kept her out of seven straight games, after Keil broke the scoring drought. Another three-pointer by Stetler, with 4:44 to play, was the Leopards' final field goal of the contest and put them up 47-39. A pair of free throws by Myers extended the margin to 10 with 3:26 left.

Ashley McLaughlin and Keil hit consecutive three's to pull Holy Cross within four with 1:45 on the clock and the Crusaders extended the game with fouls on Lafayette's final five possessions. Purr hit two free throws to push the lead to 51-45, Stetler hit the front end of two one-and-one's, and Kristin Doherty did the same with 22 seconds left to maintain at least a four-point cushion down the stretch.

Lafayette opened the game with a 7-2 lead and limited the Crusaders to 3-for-17 from the field with five turnovers in the first 11 minutes of the contest. The Leopards led by as many as six, 16-10 with 7:04 left, before Holy Cross caught them at 17 and went into the half with a 23-21 advantage.

Holy Cross shot 30 percent (9-of-30) in the first half and 32.4 percent (12-of-37) in the second for its lowest scoring output in league play. The Crusaders were also just 3-of-8 from the foul line in the game. Their top three scorers entering the game - Keil (12 points, 11 rebounds), Kaitlin Foley (10 points) and Jessica Conte (8 points) - combined to shoot 14-of-38 for the afternoon.

The Leopards were 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes but made 11 of their 19 field goals attempts in the second half.

Lafayette will travel to Hamilton, N.Y. for a 7:00 start with Colgate on Tuesday.