Holy Cross jumped out to an early four-point lead on a Thomas three-pointer — the only three of the first half by the home team. It was 14-10 after a Tim Clifford putback at the 12:08 mark, but American would come alive. The Eagles scored the next 12 points of the game to claim an eight-point advantage with under eight minutes left in the half, and took a 26-21 lead into halftime. The Holy Cross locker room couldn’t have been a pleasant place, with Simmons and Thomas combining for just eight points on 2-for-8 shooting and the Crusaders hitting just 28.6 percent of its attempts as a team.

The second half got off to an inauspicious start for the home team, with Ingram again connecting from the outside to tie the biggest American lead of the afternoon at eight. It was 31-23 when Holy Cross ripped off a 12-2 run to equalize at 33 with 12:25 remaining. With the game still tied at 40 with under nine minutes to play, the Crusaders again went on a run, getting out and scoring in transition and getting nine unanswered points to storm ahead 49-40 with 5:08 on the clock.

Rather than folding up camp, American fought back, scoring the next seven points to pull within two with inside of three minutes remaining. Eitutavicius went to the line with a chance to tie, but missed the front end of a one-and-one. At the other end, Clifford’s hook bounced in with 1:33 left. The Eagles found themselves trailing 53-50 in the final minute, when Ingram’s three-pointer struck the rim, bounced about 10 feet up in the air, and dropped through the basket to tie the game with 36.7 seconds left.

After a timeout, Simmons drove and hit a leaner with 4.8 seconds showing on the clock to put the Crusaders back on top. Jeff Jones drew up a play in the huddle, but Pat Doherty threw a wrench in the works by getting a hand on the inbounds pass. Brayden Billbe picked up the loose ball, and threw up an 85-foot heave that never reached the rim, as Holy Cross pulled out the win.