slides: Poor First Half Dooms Holy Cross, Fall 84-70 to Navy

Monday, February 23, 2015

GoLocalWorcester Sports Team

Cullen Hamilton

The Holy Cross Crusaders (11-15, 6-10 PL) fell 84-70 on the road to the (11-17, 7-9 PL) Navy Midshipmen on Sunday afternoon. The Crusaders have now dropped two straight games and drop to last place in the Patriot League.

See the five takeaways slideshow below.

Navy got off to a fast start and led the Crusaders 27-22 with five minutes left in the first half. However, Navy would waste no time building their lead back up as the Midshipmen wold rip off a 15-5 run to end the half leading 40-27.

The Crusaders used an 11-2 run in the second half to get within eight and would get as close as six points however they were unable to get any closer.

Cullen Hamilton led Holy Cross with a season high 18 points while Robert Champion followed up with a career high 15 points.

Navy was led by Brandon Venturini who netted 17 points, grabbed six rebounds and dished out six assists.

The Crusaders return to action on Wednesday, February 25 when they host Loyola in the Crusaders last home game of the season. Tip-off is set for 7 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 84-70 Loss to Navy

The Holy Cross Crusaders (11-15, 6-10 PL) fell 84-70 on the road to the (11-17, 7-9 PL) Navy Midshipmen on Sunday afternoon.

Here are five takeaways from the game.

Prev Next

Robert Champion

Sophomore guard Robert Champion netted a career high 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the field, including 3-of-5 from beyond the three-point arc.

Champion's previous career high was 13 points which came earlier this season in the Crusaders game against Colgate.

Champion also grabbed a team high six rebounds in the game against Navy.

Prev Next

Malcolm Miller

Malcolm Miller had 11 points on 3-of-7 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from the free throw line.

Miller has reached double figures in ten straight games for the Crusaders this season and the Crusaders will look for him to do a bit more as tournament time comes around.

Miller also pulled down three rebounds in the game.

Malcolm Millers last home game is on Wednesday, February 25 when the Crusaders host Loyola.

Prev Next

Cullen Hamilton

Cullen Hamilton led Holy Cross with 18 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point land.

This is the second straight game in which Hamilton has reached double figures after not reaching double digits in the previous nine games.

Hamilton also grabbed five rebounds and dished out two assists against Navy.

Prev Next

Bench Points

In the battle of the benches, Holy Cross lost 38-23.

For the Crusaders, 15 of their 23 points came from Robert Champion while Eric Green had only two points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field in 21 minutes of play.

Navy had two players off their bench reach double figures. Shawn Anderson had 13 and Tilman Dunbar had 12 to lead the Navy bench.

Prev Next

Points in the paint

The Crusaders got shredded in the points in the paint department, losing that battle 40-26.

As a result, Navy shot 52% from the field and got to the free throw line 33 times while Holy Cross shot 40% from the field and got to the charity stripe 27 times.

If the Crusaders could have done just a little bit better job of getting into the paint and scoring there, their shooting percentage might have been better.