slides: Miller’s 23 Points Not Enough, Holy Cross Falls 64 - 54 to Loyola

Friday, January 30, 2015

GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Malcolm Miller

The Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball team ( 8-11, 3-6 PL) fell to the ( 8-12, 4-5 PL) Loyola Greyhounds 64-54 on Thursday night in Maryland. The loss snaps the Crusaders two game losing streak.

See the five takeaways slideshow below.

Holy Cross trailed 47-34 with 9:28 left in the game before Malcolm Miller led the Crusaders on a 10-1 run to cut the deficit to just four points with just under 6 minutes left. Malcolm Miller had eight of the ten points in that stretch. The Crusaders would get it as close as three points with just over two minutes to go but Loyola was solid from the free throw line, making all eight of their shots to seal the win.

Malcolm Miller led Holy Cross with a career high 23 points in the game while Malachi Alexander and Anthony Thompson each followed up with seven.

Andre Walker led Loyola with 14 points while Tyler Hubbard followed up with 13.

Holy Cross returns to action on Monday, February 2 when they host American. Tip - off is set for 7:35 p.m.

Click here for tickets.

For a further look at the Crusaders loss, see the five takeaways slideshow below.

Related Slideshow: Five Takeaways From Holy Cross’s 64-54 Loss to Loyola

The Holy Cross Crusaders men's basketball team ( 8-11, 3-6 PL) fell to the ( 8-12, 4-5 PL) Loyola Greyhounds 64-54 on Thursday night in Maryland.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

Prev Next

Rebounding

Eric Green had five rebounds while Malcolm Miller grabbed eight but no other Holy Cross player had more then three in the game and the Crusaders got out rebounded 43-29.

Malachi Alexander only grabbed one rebound in 30 minutes, Burrell only had one rebound and Anthony Thompson didn't have any rebounds in 20 minutes of play.

Not a good rebounding effort from the Crusaders tonight.

Prev Next

Justin Burrell

Not a good night for guard Justin Burrell who more or less did nothing in 26 minutes of play time.

Burrell missed every shot he took from the field 0-for-6, didn't get himself to the free throw line at all and as you have probably figured out, had ZERO points in the game.

Burrell grabbed one rebound, had two assists but also turned the ball over twice.

The Crusaders need much much more then that out of their senior guard.

Prev Next

Malcolm Miller

Malcolm Miller led Holy Cross with a career high 23 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field and 10-of-11 from the free throw line. Miller also grabbed eight rebounds.

Miller has been in double figures scoring in three straight games now for the Crusaders but this is only the second time this season that Miller has been over the 20 point mark.

Miller has had a frustratingly inconsistent season for the Crusaders and as we hit the home stretch, Holy Cross will need more 20+ point performances.

Prev Next

30.8 %

Mitchell Hahn went 0-for-4 from the field and Justin Burrell went 0-for-6 from the field and the Holy Cross Crusaders shot just 30.8 % percent from the floor and 18.2 % from three-point land.

Holy Cross has struggled with their field goal percentage for just about the entire season, struggling to hit the 40 % mark and in this game they did not come close.

Loyola shot 46% from the field and 45% from three-point land.

Prev Next

3-6

With the loss, Holy Cross falls to 3-6 in conference play and 8-11 overall, a very disappointing season so far considering the Crusaders started 3-0 with a win over #25 Harvard.

However, there is still time to turn it around. The Crusaders have nine games left in the season, four of which are at home. If Holy Cross can go about 6-3 in the upcoming stretch then they will at least give themselves a chance going into the Patriot League tournament.

Going 6-3 means Holy Cross would be playing some good basketball and as we see every year in these tournaments, conference tournaments, NCAA tournaments or other, it's more about the hot team then the seeding a lot of times.