WORCESTER, Mass. – The Lafayette College women's basketball team dropped a hard fought game, 63-57, to Holy Cross on Wednesday at the Hart Center.
 
The Leopards were led by sophomore Makayla Andrews with 15 points, junior Jessica Booth with 12 points and freshman Abby Antognoli with 11.
 
Senior Naomi Ganpo led the Leopards in rebounds with a season-high nine and added a team-high two blocks.
 
Andrews put Lafayette (7-8, 3-2 PL) on the board first with a three-pointer just seconds into the game. Holy Cross (11-6, 5-1 PL) got itself on the board with back-to-back layups to put the score at 4-3 in favor of the Crusaders with 8:36 left to play in the quarter.
 
Ganpo responded to the Crusaders run with a layup of her own, putting Lafayette back in the lead 5-4. The two sides then traded the lead three times before Holy Cross took a 9-7 lead.
 
Andrews made a jumper to put the score at 9-9 before Holy Cross broke through the Leopards defense to take a 13-9 lead.  
 
Lafayette battled back out of the media timeout as Ganpo put in a layup to pull Lafayette within a basket, 13-11, but Holy Cross was able to pull itself away and send the game into the second quarter with the score 24-17.
 
The Maroon and White opened up the second quarter with an 8-0 run to put themselves in the lead 25-24. The Crusaders eventually broke through the Leopards defense late in the quarter to put themselves on the board and retake the lead 26-25.
 
Holy Cross added a three-pointer to push its lead to 29-25 before Gallagher put in a jumper to put Lafayette back within a basket. The Crusaders than drew a foul and made one of their extra shots to put the score at 30-27 before it was Gallagher again, who this time put in a shot from beyond the arc to tie the game up at 30.
 
The Crusaders responded with back-to-back baskets to put the score at 34-30. Antongoli then put in a shot from beyond the arc to send the game into halftime with Holy Cross leading 34-33.
 
The home team came out of halftime with a 5-0 run to put the score at 39-33. Booth drew a foul and made one of her extra shots to put the score at 39-34. Holy Cross then put in a layup to put the score at 41-34 and from there, started to pull away from the Leopards to put the game at a 10 point gap heading into the final 10 minutes of action.
 
Andrews started off the fourth quarter with a jumper to pull Lafayette within eight, 50-42. Crusaders once again made it a 10 point game off a layup and then exploded for a 9-0 run to put the score at 61-44.
 
Lafayette tried to mount a comeback, responding with an 11-0 run to put the score at 61-55 with 39 seconds left to play in the game. Both sides put in one more basket to bring the final to 63-57, Holy Cross.
 
For the Crusaders, Avery LaBarbera led all scorers with a game-high 16 points and 14 rebounds for a double double. Bronagh Power-Cassidy and Oluchi Ezemma were the other two Crusaders who found themselves with double-digit points, scoring 13 and 10, respectively.
 
Lafayette returns home Saturday to take on Colgate at 2 p.m. The Leopards as looking for a regular season sweep of the Raiders as they defeated them earlier this season, 59-37, in Hamilton to open up Patriot League action.