Feb. 3, 2007
Box Score
WORCESTER, Mass. - Led by 19 points and seven rebounds from Torey Thomas, Holy Cross handed the Lafayette men's basketball team a 74-52 defeat to open the second half of the Patriot League season on Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center. Junior guard Bilal Abdullah paced the Leopards with 13 points.
Lafayette hung with the league-leading Crusaders (18-6, 9-0) for much of the first half. A Paul Cummins three-pointer from the corner brought the Leopards to within four (21-17) at the 8:06 mark. However, a 14-0 run from Holy Cross over the next five minutes forced the Leopards to play from behind for the remainder of the game. Back-to-back baskets from Greg McCarthy started the Crusader spurt, and ended with an Eric Meister bucket off an Alex Vander Baan assist. Lafayette trailed 39-24 at intermission.
The Leopards (8-15, 2-6) seemed primed for a run to start the second half. A Cummins lay-up at 18:19 brought Lafayette to within 13 (39-26). Four minutes later, Lafayette trailed by 16 points (46-30) following a Matt Betley layup off an Abdullah assist. The bucket prompted Holy Cross to call a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Holy Cross, reeled off a 14-0 run over the next three minutes and 51 seconds to take its biggest lead of the game, 60-30, with 10:04 left. Thomas and senior classmate Keith Simmons proved a lethal combination during the run with Thomas accounting for 10 points and Simmons for the remaining four.
Lafayette cut into the lead several times in the final 10 minutes, slicing the margin to 18 points twice on three-pointers from Jesper Andersson and Andrew Brown. Andersson finished with 10 points and four rebounds while Brown was one of three players on the Lafayette squad with six points along with Andre Hines and Ted Detmer.
Simmons (17) joined Thomas and frontcourt players Tim Clifford (11) and Greg McCarthy (11) in double figures. Holy Cross shot 54 percent from the floor for the game compared to Lafayette's 39 percent. Lafayette made 85 percent of its shots (11-of-13) at the charity stripe, the Leopards' best team effort of the season. Lafayette was out-rebounded 32-17 with Simmons (9) and Thomas (7) accounting for 16 boards. Lafayette committed 21 turnovers to Holy Cross' 16.
The Leopards return to action on Wednesday, hosting Colgate at 7 p.m.
NOTES: Lafayette was without Jamaal Hilliard who suffered a sprained ankle in practice earlier in the week.
Lafayette's season high 85 percent (11-of-13) from the line topped their 82 percent (18-for-22) mark from the season-opener at Wagner.
Bilal Abdullah has been taking care of the ball for the Leopards over their last four games. He has 18 assists to nine turnovers during that span.
