Men's basketball - Army 52, Holy Cross 47: Crusaders suffer disappointing loss to Black Knights

WORCESTER — The elation following Sunday’s win over Lehigh turned to dejection quickly for the Holy Cross men’s basketball team.

Army, losers of three straight, seven of eight, and tied for last place in the Patriot League, came into the Hart Center Wednesday night in dire need of a victory and left with one.

Sophomore forward Jacob Kessler scored a team-high 17 points to lift the Black Knights to a 52-47 win.

“It’s really frustrating,” Holy Cross senior Robert Champion said. “We’ve struggled all year to string wins together. It hurts. Losing tonight on our home floor, it hurts.”

The Crusaders (13-15, 7-8 PL), who were coming off their best defensive performance of the year against Lehigh, had a really rough night at the offensive end against the Black Knights. HC shot 33 percent from the field and was just 5 for 25 from 3-point territory. HC forced 22 turnovers, but Army dominated the boards, 41-23, and had 13 offensive rebounds.

“It’s really disappointing,” Holy Cross coach Bill Carmody said. “They outplayed us the entire night. They killed us off the backboards. They’re not a big team really, but they got so many second shots. We had 22 turnovers, but we had five breakaways we didn’t score on. It’s the same things that have plagued us for two years now. You get a shot, you’re open, you’ve got to make it.

“When you don’t rebound and you can’t score it’s hard to win, even if you do force 22 turnovers,” Carmody said.

Holy Cross was certainly hoping to build on its 61-45 win over Lehigh, but instead lost for the third time in four games and for the fifth time in seven games. Like Champion said, the Crusaders have struggled to string wins together. HC hasn’t won more than two games in a row all year.

Champion scored 21 points and was HC’s only player in double figures. For the second straight game, senior guard Anthony Thompson was Holy Cross’ leading rebounder with eight boards.

Senior forward Malachi Alexander played in his 127th game to set a Holy Cross career record, but got into some foul trouble and finished with eight points on 3-for-7 shooting. Sophomore forward Karl Charles also had an off night. He was 0-5 from the floor and finished with one point and one rebound.

Holy Cross beat Army, 85-76, Jan. 18 in West Point, New York. That loss started the Black Knights’ slide of seven defeats in eight games.

The Black Knights (10-17, 4-11) led, 32-25, at halftime and took their largest lead, 49-41, with 1:35 left.

HC trimmed that lead to two with 33 seconds left. Sophomore guard Patrick Benzan made a pair of free throws and then, with the Crusaders pressing, came up with a steal and layup. Alexander hit a fallaway jumper off an inbound pass from Charles to get HC within 49-47.

Army set a physical tone early and outrebounded Holy Cross, 21-12, in the first half. The Black Knights had eight offensive rebounds and 11 second-chance points (Holy Cross had none).

“They outworked us,” Carmody said. “You don’t like to say that about your team, but it was pretty obvious that they were quicker to the ball.”

Champion opened the second half on a personal 8-0 run and the Crusaders regained the lead, 33-32, on his traditional 3-point play with 16:56 left. It was HC’s last lead of the game.

Holy Cross held Army to one field goal (a 3-pointer by Funk) through the first 10 minutes of the second half, but trailed by a point.

The Black Knights went up by five when Emezie made the second of two free throws. After Alexander sank a 3 with 7:15 left, the Crusaders went more than five minutes without scoring.

“It’s very frustrating,” Champion said. “We knew we didn’t play up to the way we could in the first half. In the second half, we made a point to be more aggressive and we came out and did that. I think we were getting good looks. I think we were playing well enough offensively if we just made shots and made timely plays. Those (scoring) droughts you can’t have.”

Champion ended the drought with a pair of free throws with 2:03 left.

—Contact Jennifer Toland at jennifer.toland@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @JenTandG.