Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
3-14, 0-3PL
Holy Cross
8-10, 3-0PL
Bucknell Men Can't Overcome Slow Start, Fall to Holy Cross 68-56
1/17/2009 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2009
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Andrew Keister tallied 18 points and 10 rebounds and Holy Cross used a dominant effort on the boards and good free-throw shooting to outlast Bucknell 68-56 Saturday afternoon before 3,490 fans at Sojka Pavilion. Patrick Behan scored 12 points and G.W. Boon and Jason Vegotsky had 11 each off the bench for the Bison, who lost their eighth game in a row and fell to 0-3 in the Patriot League for the first time.
Holy Cross (8-10, 3-0) received a big lift off the bench from seniors Pat Doherty and Alex Vander Baan. Doherty had 18 points, seven assists, five rebounds and three steals, and he went 13-for-14 from the free-throw line, many of them coming in the final minutes of a close game. Vander Baan had 11 points in 11 minutes and hit the biggest shot of the day for the Crusaders, a contested 3-pointer with 4:47 to play just after Bucknell had climbed all the way back within three points after trailing by as many as 20 early in the second half.
Bucknell (3-14, 0-3) endured a miserable first half, going 5-for-18 from the field with 13 turnovers while being outscored 30-15. The Bison committed only two turnovers in the second half, and the offense came alive after R.J. Evans' 3-pointer 1:08 into the period put Holy Cross ahead 35-15.
Threes by Bryan Cohen and Darryl Shazier triggered a 13-2 run over a span of only 4:11 that brought the Bison back within 37-28.
The Bison trailed 48-40 inside six minutes remaining when a five-point possession cut the deficit to three and brought the crowd back to life. Shazier grabbed a long rebound and was intentionally fouled on a breakaway layup. He made both free throws, then after the ensuing inbounds Boon canned a long 3-pointer from the right wing to make it a 48-45 game with 5:22 to play.
But on the very next trip down the floor Vander Baan hushed the crowd with a 3-pointer of his own to get the Holy Cross lead right back to six. Boon's jumper at the other end rimmed out and Vander Baan made 1 of 2 from the line, and the Bison never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Behan made two free throws with 3:43 left to make it 52-47. The Bison got a defensive stop but Shazier could not connect on a 3-pointer that would have made it a two-point game. Instead, Keister scored at the other end, Behan missed a baseline floater and Doherty drew Cohen's fifth personal foul and made both free throws with 2:02 to play, giving the Crusaders a 56-47 lead.
The Bison forced Holy Cross to win it at the free-throw line, and the Crusaders did, canning 14 of their final 15.
Bucknell began the day with six missed shots and five turnovers on its first 11 possessions, but thanks to solid defensive work of its own the team's first bucket, a Boon 3-pointer 7:40 into the game, made it a 9-5 game.
The Bison had a 5:32 scoreless streak later in the half, during which time Holy Cross scored eight straight points to go up 20-8. It was an eight-point game in the final four minutes of the half when Bucknell missed 3 of 4 free throws, including two front ends of 1-and-1s, and the Crusaders finished the half on a 9-2 run to go up 30-15.
Bucknell actually outshot Holy Cross in the first half, 27.8 percent to 26.9 percent, but the Crusaders made 14 of 18 at the line and had eight second-chance points.
Rebounding was a major difference, as Holy Cross finished with a 43-28 edge on the glass. The Bison managed only four offensive rebounds compared to 17 for Holy Cross.
Cohen and Shazier scored seven points each for the Bison. Shazier also had six assists without a turnover while becoming the first Bucknell player to play all 40 minutes of a regulation-time game since Dan Blankenship did it against Lafayette in 2003. Shazier now has 30 assists and four turnovers in his last five games.
Bucknell continues its three-game homestand on Wednesday night against Lafayette at 7 p.m.
