Season Preview: Holy Cross Women’s Basketball

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Thursday, November 07, 2013

Matt LaPan, GoLocalWorcester Sports Reporter

The 2013-14 Holy Cross women's basketball team is set to kickoff a new season Friday, November 8 as they host the Big Green of Dartmouth at the Hart Center in Worcester, MA. The Crusaders are coming off back-to-back Patriot League appearances and are poised to make another run at the Patriot League title with a roster that features a great mix of size, skill and leadership.

The Crusaders are led by a pair of senior co-captains, guard Alex Smith and forward Christine Ganser. In 2013-13, these two combined for 21.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game.

Ganser is a versatile forward, who will likely play multiple positions across the front court this season. She averaged 7.0 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Her combination of size (6-foot 1-inch) and shooting ability (shot 44 percent from the field) gives the Crusaders lineup flexibility.

Smith comes into the 2013-14 campaign off a first team All-Patriot League 2012-13. She led the Patriot League with 14.5 points per game and is deadly accurate from the behind the three-point line, making 37.2 percent of her attempts en route to a 1,000 point season. Smith is indubitably the leader of the Crusaders offense, playing nearly 36 minutes per game last season.

Smith will be joined in the back court by fellow senior Brisje Malone. Malone led the Patriot League last season with 5.0 assists per game and is a great compliment to Smith. Malone does a great job possessing the ball, posting an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.6-to-1. Although Malone is best when distributing the ball, she can also fill up the stat sheet, averaging 9.4 points and 1.8 steals per game.

The Crusaders also have a strong pair of sophomores returning that both add great depth to the team in Raquel Scott and Molly Hourigan. Both Scott and Hourigan add a strong rebounding presence to the team with Scott averaging a total of 5.3 rebounds per game, including 10.7 per game in the Patriot League Tournament. Hourigan averaged 3.8 rebounds per game and protected the Crusaders basket with 1.1 blocks per game.

The Crusaders rank fourth in the preseason Patriot League poll, in large part due to their high-powered offense. They led the Patriot League in points per game (59.9 PPG), field goal percentage (.414%) and assists per game (15.5 APG) in 2012-13 but carried a league-worst defense that allowed 61.5 points per game. With any change to the defense, the Crusaders could once again find themselves atop the Patriot League.