22 February, 2007
by Ryan Minihane
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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| Colgate (9-18, 4-9 Patriot) |
24 |
33 |
57 |
| Holy Cross (21-8, 12-1 Patriot) |
33 |
35 |
68 |
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Holy Cross continued their dominance of the Patriot League, improving their record in conference to 12-1 after destroying Colgate 68-57 on Senior Day in Worcester. The first half of the game started off rather slowly with Colgate turning the ball over frequently but Holy Cross unable to convert baskets off of turnovers. As the half went on, every player on the court for Holy Cross contributed offensively. Leading the way for the Crusaders was Alex Vander Baan, who scored 7 first-half points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field.
Colgate as a team had 12 first half turnovers, but shot 40.9 percent from the field in the first half. The main reason why the Raiders were able to stay in the game was the outstanding play of Kendall Chones, who had 12 points coming off the bench.
The second half was a different story, though. During the first 10 minutes of the second hal,f Holy Cross had a huge 17-6 run and never looked back. Keith Simmons led the way for the Crusaders by simply dominating the offensive side of the ball. Simmons had 10 second half-points and got to the free throw line 10 times in the half as well. He would finish the game with a game-high 18 points and 7 rebounds. During the final 2 minutes of the game, Colgate put together a small run to bring the lead down to 11 points, but all of this was done with Holy Cross’ reserves in the game.
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
With 3:17 left in the first half, Torey Thomas threw an alley-op to Simmons from the three-point line and Simmons finished the play with a strong two-handed dunk that bent the rim down. From that point on until the end of the half, Holy Cross went on a huge 10-1 run and took complete control over the game. This run put Holy Cross up by 9 points at the half, and the lead only grew from there.
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| Key sign it was over |
With 2:01 left in the game, Crusader coach Ralph Willard took his star seniors Thomas and Simmons out of the game. Tonight was their last regular season game at the Hart Center and the crowd showed their appreciation by giving them a huge standing ovation. The score was 68-48 at this point.
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| Key performance |
Alex Vander Baan a huge game. Usually he is not expected to contribute too much to the offensive side of the ball but tonight he did, scoring 11 points and pulling down 5 rebounds, and surprisingly dishing out 5 assists.
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| Key statistic |
Tonight Holy Cross controlled the paint and dominated Colgate overall because of it. The Crusaders outscored Colgate 38-22 inside the paint.
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| Notes |
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Colgate got 31 points from the bench tonight and Holy Cross only got 14. All of Holy Cross’ bench points came from Pat Doherty and Greg McCarthy.
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Holy Cross got to the foul line 21 times on the night and Colgate got there 11 times.
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The loss drops Colgate into a three-way tie for sixth place in the Patriot League. They face off with Navy, one of the teams they’re tied with, in the final regular season game on Saturday.
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Holy Cross wraps up the regular season at Lehigh Sunday afternoon.
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