Final Stats

WORCESTER, Mass. - For the first time in Patriot League Tournament history, a No. 10 seed won. The historic win came when the tenth-seeded Lafayette women's basketball team defeated No. 7 Holy Cross, 58-54, in the first game of the conference tournament on Saturday afternoon at the Hart Center. The postseason will resume for the Leopards on Monday, when they take on No. 2 Navy for a 7 p.m. tilt in Annapolis, Md.

The game came down to the wire as the Crusaders surged in the fourth quarter to climb out of a large deficit, but the Leopards hung on to advance to the second round of the tournament for the second time in the past three seasons.

For the ninth straight game, Olivia Gumbs reached double-digit scoring as she finished the afternoon with a team-best 20 points to go along with a career-high 15 boards. Anna Ptasinski was the other Leopard to reach double-figures after putting in 11, while Ashley Lutz and Sammy Stipa each added seven.

A pair of threes from Lutz and Ptasinski, and a score from inside by Maia Hood put the Leopards on top 8-0 with six minutes to go in the first. Ptasinski would add another make from deep and the Leopards grabbed an 11-2 advantage over the Crusaders. At the end of the quarter, Lafayette led 16-5.

The Crusaders had a first quarter to forget as they knocked down just one of their 18 attempts from the field. They had plenty of quality looks at the basket from all areas of the court, but failed to convert.

To open the second quarter, Sarah Agnello knocked down a three and the Leopards got baskets from Gumbs and Stipa to cap off a 12-1 Lafayette run, pushing the advantage to 18, 23-5.

The Crusaders' shooting woes carried over into the following quarter and it took over 18 total minutes for Holy Cross to finally reach double-figures in scoring as a team.

Lauren Manis spent much of her first half on the sidelines due to foul trouble, but was still used in limited minutes and scored in the low post to cut the deficit to 14, 25-11. However, the Leopards came back down the floor and Ptasinski buried her third shot from beyond the arc.

The Leopards had trouble building on their lead in the second as they were held scoreless for three and half minutes, but still went into the half leading 28-14.

A 6-2 spurt for the Leopards to open up the new half put them ahead by 18, 34-16. The Crusaders applied full court pressure midway through the third, but Lafayette handled it without issues.

From late in the third through the fourth, the Crusaders finally got in rhythm from beyond the arc. Holy Cross knocked down its first three of the game and added another one late in the quarter to cut the deficit to 13, 38-25, with under a minute left on the clock.

A 3-pointer by Madalyn Smith to open the fourth brought the score within 12, the closest it was since the opening quarter.

The Crusaders continued to apply the full court pressure and it began to work as following a steal and score out of a timeout near the midway point of the fourth, the Lafayette lead was trimmed to 10. Holy Cross then made it an eight-point game on a pair of made foul shots.

With five minutes remaining in the game, the deficit was brought within single digits and not before long, it was a three-point game, 46-43, after Katie Doherty scored on a layup.

For the time being, that would be as close as Holy Cross would get as the Leopards picked it up on the defensive end and rebuilt their lead at the charity stripe. Over the next two minutes, Lafayette went 7-for-8 at the line to go ahead by nine, 55-46.

The Crusaders stayed in it though and in the final minute, buried a pair of 3-pointers to make it a one-point game. However, at that point it was too late as the Leopards hung on and did not allow the Crusaders to get another shot off.