slides: Bison’s Second Half Surge Too Much For Holy Cross, Fall 70-57

Monday, February 09, 2015

GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Malcolm Miller

The Holy Cross Crusader's men's basketball team (9-13, 4-8 PL) fell 70-57 to the (13-12, 8-4 PL) Bucknell Bison on Sunday afternoon. The Crusaders have now lost three of their last four games and fall back into last place in the Patriot League.

See the five takeaways slideshow below.

Battling Bucknell

Malcolm Miller knocked down a free throw to complete a three-point play that put Holy Cross up 39-37 with 11:58 left to play in the game before Bucknell made their run.

From that point, the Bison went on a 13-4 run to take a 50-43 lead with just under seven minutes to go in the game. A jumper by John Azzinaro extended the Bison lead to ten at 54-44 with six minutes left to play.

The Crusaders would put together a few small runs but could get no closer then six points the rest of the way.

Leading the way

The Crusaders were led by Malcolm Miller who netted 12 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Malachi Alexander followed up with 11 points.

Bucknell was led by John Azzinaro who poured in 14 points off the bench.

Next up, Army

The Crusaders return to action on Wednesday, February 11 when they visit Army. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.

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

Related Slideshow: Five Takeaways From Holy Cross’s 70-57 Loss to Bucknell

The Holy Cross Crusader's men's basketball team (9-13, 4-8 PL) fell 70-57 to the (13-12, 8-4 PL) Bucknell Bison on Sunday afternoon.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

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Malachi Alexander

Malachi Alexander was one of only two Holy Cross players in double-figures as he netted 11 points but mostly because of the eight free throws that he knocked in.

Alexander did not shoot the ball well at all, going 1-for-8 from the field.

His shooting percentage of .125 is the lowest he has shot in over a month as he has been pretty consistent for the most part.

Chalk this one up to just an off night.

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Malcolm Miller

Malcolm Miller led Holy Cross with 12 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-3 from the free throw line in 37 minutes of play time.

Miller filled out his stat line with eight rebounds, two assists, one steal and a season high four blocked shots.

Miller has been in double-figures in six straight games now for the Crusaders and has pulled down eight rebounds in three of the last four games.

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Bench points

Bucknell's bench outscored Holy Cross's bench 36-19 in the game and was a big part of Bucknell's second half surge.

For Holy Cross, Robert Champion had six points to lead the bench while Eric Green and Christopher Morgan followed up with five.

Meanwhile, Mitchell Hahn had one point in six minutes of play time while Matt Husek had two points in only five minutes of play time.

John Azzinaro and Zach Thomas had 14 and 12 points respectively to lead the Bucknell bench.

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21-for-34

The Crusaders did a great job of getting themselves to the free-throw line in this game, taking 34 free throws on the road is a really good number.

The problem is, they only made 21 of them.

Malachi Alexander went 8-for-12 and Eric Green went 3-for-6 leading Holy Cross to shoot 61 % from he charity stripe.

Bucknell was slightly better, making 25 of their 35 free throws to shoot 71 % from the line.

13 extra points could have made a huge difference in the game for the Crusaders.

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30 %

Over the last couple of games, the Crusaders have been shooting a higher percentage because they were getting points in the paint. In this game however, not so much.

The Crusaders only had 15 points in the paint leading them to only make 15 shots from the field in the game and shoot 30 % from the floor. Holy Cross shot 33 % from three-point land.

Meanwhile, Bucknell had 26 points in the paint and shot 47 % from the field.