Holy Cross Suffers First Loss of Season, 72-48 to Syracuse

Saturday, November 29, 2014

GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Malcolm Miller

The Holy Cross Men's basketball team (3-1) lost 72-48 on the road against the (5-1) Syracuse Orange on Friday night at the Carrier Dome in front of just over 19,000 people. The loss is the Crusaders first of the season.

See the five takeaways slideshow below

Holy Cross trailed by one point, 10-9, with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half but then the Orange went on a 10-0 run to put them up 20-9. From that point on, the Orange would never lead by less the ten in the game, in route to a blowout victory.

Senior Malcolm Miller led the Crusaders with a season high 18 points on seven of 11 shooting while the Orange were led by Raheem Christmas who had a career high 25 points in the game, knocking down eight of his ten shots from the floor.

The Crusaders are back in action on Wednesday, December 3, when they visit America East power Albany. Tip off is set for 7 p.m.

See the five takeaways from Holy Cross's 72-48 loss to Syracuse

Related Slideshow: Five Takeaways from Holy Cross’s 72-48 Loss to Syracuse

The Holy Cross Men's basketball team (3-1) lost 72-48 on the road against the (5-1) Syracuse Orange on Friday night at the Carrier Dome in front of just over 19,000 people.

Below are five takeaways from the game.

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Trouble Shooting

Other then Miller, the Crusaders really struggled to put the ball in the basket. They shot just 26 percent from the field and 18 percent from three-point land.

Credit the Syracuse 2-3 zone defense for a lot of that as they only allowed Holy Cross 16 points in the paint. The Crusaders took 16 three-pointers in the game and made only three of them.

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Rebounding

Eric Green led Holy Cross with five rebounds in the game but overall, the Crusaders got killed on the boards. They lost the battle of the boards 50-29, however, it was too be expected as the Orange are a bigger team the Holy Cross overall.

The enormous rebounding advantage led to a big second chance points advantage as Syracuse had 18 second chance points compared to Holy Cross's four.

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Turnovers

Point guard Justin Burrell had five turnovers in the game for the Crusaders but overall they have to be happy with how they held onto the ball against a tough Syracuse team that likes to pressure the ball.

The Crusaders only turned the ball over 13 times in the game and nine of those 13 times were Syracuse steals. The Orange ended up with 17 points off of the 13 turnovers.

Meanwhile, Holy Cross forced the Orange into 15 turnovers, 10 on steals, and scored 15 points off of those turnovers.

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Malcolm Miller

A big positive for the Crusaders was that Malcolm Miller has his best scoring game of the year against a historically great defensive team in Syracuse.

Miller had a season high 18 points on seven of 11 shooting from the field. Miller also had three rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 33 minutes of play time.

Holy Cross has to feel good about Miller's performance and will look and expect to see more games like this as the season goes on.

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Learning experience

The Crusaders lost 72-48 to the Syracuse Orange on Friday night but what they got out of it was a great experience and great teaching moments to carry forward.

Syracuse is a national power year in and year out and Holy Cross represented themselves pretty well despite getting blown out. Holy Cross played in a huge arena in front of just over 19,000 people, which is the sixth largest crowd to ever see Holy Cross play,

They will be able to take this experience, learn from it, and use it going forward.