Crusaders Fall to Boston University 75-72 in OT Thriller

Thursday, January 01, 2015

GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Malcolm Miller

The Holy Cross Crusaders (5-6,0-1NEC) fell 75-72 in overtime to Boston University (5-7,1-0 NEC) on Wednesday afternoon in the first conference game of the season. The Crusaders have now lost three straight games and five of their last six. Holy Cross also falls under .500 for the first time this season after starting the season 3-0.

See the five takeaways slideshow below.

The Crusaders Taylor Abt knocked down two free throws with a minute left to give Holy Cross a 72-71 lead in the overtime period. However, the Terriers Justin Alston got himself a layup with 39 seconds left to give Boston University a 73-72 lead and would make it 74-72 on another free throw 30 seconds later after Malcolm Miller missed a three-pointer.

Holy Cross guard Justin Burrell missed a layup with three seconds left that would have retied the game and Holy Cross drops their first conference game of the season.

The Crusaders were led by senior Malcolm Miller who had a game high 21 points on eight of 14 shooting from the field. Eric Green followed up with 12 points of his own in the loss.

Boston University was led by Cedric Hankerson and Justin Alston who had 17 points each while Nathan Dieudonne had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

Holy Cross will look to bounce back on Saturday, January 3 when they visit American. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m.

For a further look at the thrilling game between Boston University and Holy Cross, see the five takeaways slideshow below.

Related Slideshow: Five Takeaways From the Crusaders 75-72 Loss to Boston University

The Holy Cross Crusaders (5-6,0-1NEC) fell 75-72 in overtime to Boston University (5-7,1-0 NEC) on Wednesday afternoon in the first conference game of the season.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

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Malcolm Miller

Malcolm Miller led Holy Cross with a season high 21 points in the game on 8 of 14 shooting from the field, including 3 of 7 from beyond the arc.

Miller also pulled down 4 rebounds, dished out three assists, had two steals and a block in the contest.

The only negative to Miller's game against BU is he only shot two free throws.

The Crusaders will need more performances like this from Malcolm Miller if they expect to turn their season around.

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Good off the bench

Malachi Alexander was good off the bench for the Crusaders in this game, playing 29 minutes and netting 12 points on 6 of 14 shooting from the field.

Alexander also had five rebounds, all offensive, three assists and two steals in the contest.

The only thing Alexander was not able to do in this game is get to the free throw line.

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Crashing the offensive glass

An impressive statistic that favored Holy Cross in this game is that they pulled in 19 offensive rebounds compared to five for Boston University.

Malachi Alexander led the Crusaders with five offensive rebounds but was followed closely by Eric Green who pulled in four.

Holy Cross was only able to pour in 12 second chance points with help from those 19 rebounds.

Holy Cross lost the rebounding battle 38-34 overall but they are surely wishing they added a few more points off of second chance oppurtunities.

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Disappearing Act?

Mitchell Hahn put up 22 points in 20 minutes of play on the road against Albany (December 3) and has since pulled a disappearing act of sorts.

Hahn played 15 minutes against NJIT (December 12) and had four points, only taking two shots from the field. Since then, his minutes have dropped to where he played only two minutes against Boston University, four minutes against Pittsburgh and eight minutes against Canisius.

Holy Cross got blown out in two of those three games and could have used his scoring and three-point shooting.

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19-5

19 free throws for Boston University, 5 free throws for Holy Cross.

This is not a new issue, this has been a problem throughout the season for the Crusaders and in a big conference game in which they lost by three, it's stats like these that can make a difference.

Only getting to the free throw line 5 times in an entire game is just not good enough.