18 November, 2006
by Ryan Minihane
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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| Siena (0-2) |
29 |
28 |
57 |
| Holy Cross (3-0) |
34 |
31 |
65 |
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Holy Cross extended their record to 3-0 with a victory over Siena 65-57. The game started off rather slowly with no points being scored during the first two minutes of the game. Holy Cross came out in the first half following the great play of Keith Simmons, who ended up with 18 points. Simmons scored 8 of his teams first 14 points. Siena was looking for a source for scoring throughout the entire first half. One player who stepped up was Kenny Hasbrouck, who scored 7 first-half points while shooting 75.0 percent from the floor in the half.
With about a minute left in the half Simmons stole the ball at half court from Tay Fisher, took it all the way down the court and finished off the play with a powerful two-handed dunk. This was the last basket scored in the half, and finished off a 6-0 run for Holy Cross.
The second half was a different story for Siena. Holy Cross came out firing from three-point land. Torey Thomas and Colin Cunningham made back-to-back three-point shots on two consecutive possessions to spark what would be a 10-0 run for Holy Cross. Shortly after this Siena began to take advantage of the weak defense that Holy Cross was playing in the paint. Both Alex Franklin and Michael Haddix began to score at will in the paint against the Crusaders.
Siena was able to finally able to take a lead for the first time since early in the game at 55-54. This lead was not held on for very long. Thomas began to take over the game towards the end of the second half driving to the lane at will. Thomas, who only had 4 points in the first half went on to score 16 in the second half. He did it by getting to the foul line towards the end of the game. Thomas went 6-of-9 from the free throw line in the second half.
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
With 5:03 to go in the game, Alex Franklin of Siena stole the ball from Tim Clifford and began a fast break. While driving to the hole for a lay-up, Thomas stepped up and made Franklin change his direction towards the hoop. When Franklin went up for the lay-up,Simmons came from behind and rejected the lay-up into the front row. The score was 52-52 at this point and the momentum was taken away completely from Siena when the Holy Cross crowd went crazy.
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| Key sign it was over |
With 2:00 remaining in the game, Thomas hit a three-pointer to take a four-point lead in the game. Siena had the opportunity to get back into the game with 4 free throw attempts, and ended up hitting only 1-4 during that stretch. Holy Cross took advantage of this mistake and went on a 7-1 run to close the game out.
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| Key performance |
Alex Vander Baan started the game and played 38 minutes on the night. He finished the game with 11 points, 10 rebounds, had 3 assists and also had 4 steals.
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| Key statistic |
Holy Cross had 21 offensive rebounds compared to Siena’s 6. This created many more opportunities for the Crusaders. The Crusaders had 16 second-chance point, Siena had 4.
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| Notes |
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Keith Simmons, who is not known for his rebounding, finished the night off with 11.
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Holy Cross took 17 three-pointers, hitting just 3.
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Tim Clifford took a season his 13 shots in the game. He hit 4, finishing with 9 points.
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Only 7 players took shots for Saints.
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The game was tied 9 times and there were 7 lead changes.
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