Box Score

 

EASTON, Pa. – A stagnant Lafayette offense came to life in the fourth quarter, but the Leopards were unable to come all the way back from a nine-point deficit to begin the frame, as visiting Holy Cross held on for a 57-54 victory Wednesday night.

Lafayette had two chances to tie the game in the closing seconds, but back-to-back 3-point attempts were off the mark. The Crusaders used a 17-2 run to end the third quarter to assume control for a majority of the final 10 minutes.

Jamie O’Hare finished with a game-high 22 points in the defeat, and she also moved past Ellen Fitzkee ’81 for third all-time in program history after dishing out her 372nd-career assist early in the fourth. Ashley Lutz added 13 points and eight rebounds, just missing out on a third-straight double-double, and Alex Cantwell matched a career-high with 10 boards.

Offense was extremely hard to come by for both sides in the opening half. Holy Cross used a 10-0 run during the middle of the first quarter to grab a 14-5 lead, but 3-pointers by O’Hare and Anna Ptasinski got the Leopards within three heading into the second.

Lafayette expanded its run to 11 unanswered early in the next frame, and a Lutz tip-in gave the Maroon and White a 16-14 edge with 8:16 left. That would turn out to be the final field goal for either side for over six minutes, with the teams combining to go 3-for-29 in the quarter (10.3 percent).

The Leopards, though, did hit 10-of-12 attempts from the free throw line, and that helped them grab a 22-20 advantage at the intermission. The 20 points were the fewest allowed for the team all season in a half, bettering the 22 points they surrendered in the first half of a Jan. 20 win at American.

Lafayette scored seven points in the opening three minutes of the third quarter, capped by a Maia Hood layup with 7:09 on the clock that gave the home team its largest lead of the night at 29-23. The Leopards, however, did not score again until O’Hare sank a jumper with 40 seconds left, and by the time the buzzer sounded the Crusaders had opened up a 40-31 edge.

Holy Cross led by as many as 11 early on in the fourth quarter, and the Maroon and White still trailed 49-42 with 2:23 remaining. Ptasinski then drained her second long ball, and after a Crusader jumper on the other end, O’Hare made her fourth shot from long distance to cut the deficit to 51-48 with 1:19 left.

Lafayette forced a turnover on the ensuing Holy Cross possession, and Cantwell reduced the deficit to one with 45 seconds still on the clock.

Lisa Mifsud nailed a huge three for the Crusaders 20 seconds later to open the lead back up to 54-50. After free throws on both sides, the Leopards faced a 57-54 deficit with 11 seconds remaining, but could not convert on two 3-point attempts which would have tied the score.

Katie Doherty led Holy Cross (10-13, 7-5 PL) with 16 points, and she hit 6-of-10 attempts from the floor in a game where neither team shot above 35 percent overall.

Lafayette (5-17, 3-9 PL) returns to the road Saturday night, traveling to Annapolis, Md., to take on Navy at 7 p.m.

Notes:

The Leopards ended the night 16-for-18 from the free throw line, hitting 80 percent or more of their foul attempts for a fourth-straight game.

O’Hare reached 20 points for the fifth time this season and first since a career-high 26-point effort against Colgate on Dec. 22. She also played the entire game for a seventh time in 2015-16.

Lafayette controlled the boards by a wide 47-33 margin, but fell to 4-7 this season when out-rebounding its opponent. All eight Leopards who appeared in the game grabbed at least two rebounds.