next game:
at American
1/14/2023 | 2:00 PM
ESPN+
Jan 14 (Sat) / 2:00 PM
American
History
WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross women’s basketball outlasted Lehigh in the final quarter, outscoring the Mountain Hawks 22-9 in the final frame to come away with a 64-66 win Wednesday night to remain perfect in league play.
“We played really well for three quarters, and then we stopped scoring in the fourth,” said Lehigh head coach Addie Micir. “We’ve got to find a way to keep up our scoring output. We have a couple of different shots or layups that go in at the right time, we extend the lead, and it turns out differently, but I’ve got to credit them, they didn’t give up. We’ve got to learn some lessons from this, and then we move on.”
Holy Cross, who is ranked as the top defense in the league, saved his best defensive performance of the game for the final 10 minutes. The Crusaders limited Lehigh to 3-of-12 from the field in the fourth quarter, while they shot 8-of-14.
The Mountain Hawks (7-9) overall are now 3-2 in Patriot League play.Holy Cross is 13-3 and 5-0 in the league..
Lehigh played a quality game against a first-place Holy Cross team, but the fourth quarter would be the difference.
The Mountain Hawks came out hot right from the jump, going on a 15-3 run, which sparked a Crusaders timeout. Holy Cross ended the quarter on an 8-0 run.
Lehigh continued to dominate in the second quarter, outscoring Holy Cross 22-12 to take a 37-24 lead, which would be its biggest lead of the game.
Sophomore Ella Stemmer was the bright spot for the Mountain Hawks. The sophomore made her second career start, and had a career-high of 22 points, and stepped up big with Mackenzie Kramer out of the lineup. Kramer is second in the league in scoring, averaging 16.8 points per game.
“Ella’s so capable,” Micir said. “She’s a player that is just consistent in everything that she does, so she’s making the most out of her opportunity. We asked people to step up today, and I thought she took that opportunity and ran with it.”
Frannie Hottinger had a team high of 23 points. Kaylee Van Eps added eight points.
Holy Cross controlled the paint and the boards tonight. The Crusaders had 42 points in the paint, while Lehigh had 22, and they also had 42 rebounds compared to Lehigh’s 36.
Bronagh Power Cassidy led the Crusaders with 18 points. Six of Power Cassidy’s 18 points were from back-to-back threes in the fourth quarter, which helped Holy Cross erase a 55-44 Lehigh lead after three quarters.
The Mountain Hawks will look to get their first Patriot League road win when they take on American on Saturday at 2 pm in Washington, DC
“We want to build on Ella’s play,” Micir said. “We showed that when we run our offense really well like we did in the first three quarters that you can get really good looks, and we have to find a way to continue to do that when people change up the way they defend us.”
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