Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
#4 Holy Cross (PL Tournament)
Fifth-seeded Bison Women Advance to Semifinals with Win Over Fourth-seeded Holy Cross
3/5/2004 7:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2004
UPPER MARLBORO, Md. - Senior first-team all-leaguer Desire Almind scored 24 points and pulled down 16 rebounds for her 18th double-double of the year, and the Patriot League Freshman of the Year Lindsey Hollobaugh tallied a game-high 25 points for her fifth-straight 20-point game, as the fifth-seeded Bucknell women's basketball team defeated #4 Holy Cross, 94-75, in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament on Friday, March 5.
The win marks the first time in the 34-game history of the series with that BU has defeated the Crusaders two times in a row. It is also the first time Holy Cross has not advanced past the opening round, and just the third time in the 14-year history of the league that HC will not be present in the championship game.
Bucknell opened up a 9-2 lead on an Almind jumper with 16:43 to play, before the Crusaders put together a 9-2 run to tie the game at 11. Maggie Fontana scored five during the spurt, and Lisa Andrews and Mary Rose Campbell each added two.
Holy Cross took its only lead of the ball game on a Fontana layup at the 12:34 mark, but junior Brooke Tomovich responded with her second-straight three-pointer to give the Bison the lead for good.
Both teams were plagued by turnovers in the first half, and a Bison miscue led to a Shannon Bush layup that got the Crusaders within one with 4:29 to play in the half. BU was clinging to a 36-32 lead when Hollobaugh pushed it to a seven-point halftime advantage with her trey with six seconds until the break.
The Bison opened the second half with a 10-4 run to open up a double-digit lead for the first time, 49-36, with 16:44 to play. Holy Cross would get no closer than nine the rest of the way, and Bucknell saw its largest lead of the game at the final buzzer.
Almind added four blocks and six steals to her line, moving her into second (107) and sixth (213) on the Bucknell career-lists in those respective categories. The co-captain enters Sunday's semifinal game against top-seeded Colgate needing just eight points to become the third player in Bucknell history to score 500 points in a season. Tip-off against the Raiders is at noon.
