EASTON, Pa. – The Lafayette men's basketball team found itself battling adversity once again at Kirby Sports Center on Sunday afternoon, but the Leopards showed resiliency as free throws with less than five seconds to play proved to be the difference in a 69-67 victory over Holy Cross.

Lafayette controlled the opening half and went into the break with a 47-35 advantage, but Holy Cross quickly closed the gap and led by a bucket midway through the second stanza. Despite squandering the advantage, the Leopards continued to fight and ultimately hung on as sophomore Justin Jaworski drilled two foul shots with five seconds left to seal it.

Jaworski finished with a game-high 18 points on the afternoon, one of five Leopards to record a double-figuring scoring line. Classmate Alex Petrie added 13, while junior Lukas Jarrett, sophomore E.J. Stephens and freshman Isaac Suffren chipped in with 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.

The Leopards put their three-point shooting on display, scoring 42 of their 62 points from beyond the arc. Lafayette went 14-of-29 from distance on the day (48.3%), including Petrie's 4-of-6 mark, 3-of-7 from Jaworski and two makes each from Jarrett, Stephens and Suffren.

The win is the second straight for the Maroon and White, the first back-to-back wins of the 2018-19 campaign. The Leopards improve to 7-16 overall and 4-8 in Patriot League action, while Holy Cross falls to 13-12, sitting at 4-8 in conference play.

Points weren't hard to find at the start for both sides as a Stephens triple off a left-wing feed from classmate Dylan Hastings put the Maroon and White ahead by one after five minutes, 15-14. The offenses continued to execute on either end of the floor as two triples from Petrie sandwiched a deep make from Holy Cross' Matt Faw to make it 26-24 with 10:34 to play in the half.

The Leopards came out of the under-12 timeout and went on a tear, scoring 14 unanswered to open up a 37-24 lead with six minutes left. Two Holy Cross timeouts later, the Leopards remained in control with five straight from Jarrett putting the advantage at 16, 42-26, with 4:41 left.

Lafayette's offense cooled off over the next few minutes of the half, but a throwdown in transition from Suffren kept the Crusaders a distance away, leading 44-30. Petrie's three at 1:03 served to be the Leopards' final points of the opening period with Holy Cross closing on a 5-0 spurt to move the game into the break with the Maroon and White in front, 47-35.

Holy Cross used that momentum from the first half and picked up right where it left off in the second, using a 9-2 run to force a timeout at 17:10 with the lead trimmed to five, 49-44. Suffren's three from the left corner and stout post defense from Jarrett on the following possession quieted the run and took the half to its first break with the Leopards advantage at 52-44.

Five more from the Crusaders brought the visitors within three, but free throws from Suffren held them off to head into the under-12 timeout up five, 54-49. However, eight more from the visitors, including stifling defense on the other end, took the second half past its midway point with the visitors grabbing a 57-54 lead.

Petrie's three at 8:43 stopped the run before a put back from Jehyve Floyd made it 59-57 in favor of Holy Cross. Then, the Leopards made their move with nine straight over a three-minute stretch that put them back in front by seven, 66-59, with 4:26 to play.

The Crusaders weren't done yet, though, as Austin Butler free throws with less than a minute to play tied the game at 67-67. That score remained until the five-second mark when Jaworski made plays on both ends of the court to seal the win.

Stepping up to the foul line in a tie game with five seconds remaining, Jaworski drilled both to put the Leopards ahead. Then, he defended the Crusader's Caleb Green, who took it the length of the court and missed off the mark on an off-balance floater as the clock sounded on a 69-67 victory.

Lafayette will take its two-game winning streak to Annapolis, Maryland in its next contest, traveling to Navy on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. battle with the Mids.