WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross needed a win, simply put. They came into Tuesday night having lost five in a row. But more than that, they could have used a good, convincing win, especially since they at one point looked like they might have a chance at just that. They’ll be content with their 66-57 win over Navy, but not content with how they had to hang on at the end.
“You definitely would rather win ugly than lose pretty,” said sophomore guard Justin Burrell. “We’re definitely not content with the way we played in the second half. We talked about some of the mistakes that we made. We’re not satisfied with our play, so we’re going to continue to build off of that with these couple of days that we have in practice, and hopefully we can get better.”
The Crusaders were aggressive from the outset on Tuesday night, running out to an early lead and before long having all the confidence in the world. They shot 56 percent from the field in the first half and had 11 assists on 14 baskets. They led 43-28, and given Navy’s offensive struggles all season, looked like they should win by a good margin as Navy doesn’t have the firepower to be much of a come-from-behind team.
Instead, Navy scored the first ten points of the second half, and Holy Cross didn’t seem like the confident team they were in the latter part of the first half. Shortly after that, Navy got within four on two occasions before the Crusaders were able to put and keep a little more distance between themselves and the Midshipmen the rest of the way.
“I think we lost a little bit of our edge as far as making sure we locked in on the defensive end, but I thought it was more so on the offensive end,” said head coach Milan Brown. “I thought we could have done some things to stymie their run on the offensive end more so than the defensive end.”
Holy Cross has first struggled at the offensive end, and the biggest bugaboo has been a season-long problem: wing scoring. The Crusaders have inside threats in Dave Dudzinski and Phil Beans, both of whom can step out and shoot, and Burrell is a reasonable threat from long range along with Beans. But they lack players who can attack the basket and make things happen, at least on a regular basis.
Certainly, Malcolm Miller and Jordan Stevens have shown the ability to do that from time to time. Miller had a stretch after Christmas where he was doing that, and if he does so consistently he can be a big-time scorer in the Patriot League. Tuesday night, he showed it again in getting to the foul line ten times and leading the way to 25 free throw attempts for the team, well above their average of 15 per game.
“We need Malcolm really badly, he’s got a skill set that not too many people can guard,” said Dudzinski. “We really need him to be aggressive like that, and if he’s aggressive like that, we’re going to be really, really hard to beat.”
During the five-game losing streak, the Crusaders weren’t lock-down defenders, but they were okay at that end. Although Bucknell shot over 46 percent against them, they generally held teams to a reasonable percentage. They don’t turn teams over, so the small numbers there are pretty much in line with the ones on the season. But as Brown noted, they shot just 37 percent from the field in that stretch and averaged over 56 points per game. They shot just above 32 percent from long range as well. On the season, they score a little over 60 points per game.
Brown said a while ago that this team needs to see the ball go through the basket, and the effect was noticeable in the first half when that happened. Burrell and Dee Goens combined for 10 assists and three turnovers at the point on the evening, and all nine Crusaders who got in the game scored.
Freshman Christopher Morgan has started the past two games at one forward spot, a move that looked odd at first as Morgan had played 28 minutes in nine games all season before that. His stats in the two games have been modest, as expected, as he has scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds in 30 minutes. While there was some thought to sending a message to the other forwards, Brown said it was more about matchups than anything else, especially with Dudzinski and Beans being much better defending post players, and that’s why there is reason to believe Morgan will remain in the starting lineup at least for the immediate future.
“What the change really was is that we wanted to put some better athletes out there and try to keep Dave and Phil in the hole and playing against similar guys with the same amount of foot speed,” said Brown. “Dave’s such a workhorse, but he was just so drained at the end of all five of those games. You could see him, he was just spent, because we need him to score anywhere from 15-20 points, and then we’re asking him to chase some 6’5″ guy around 20 feet away from the basket.”
Holy Cross has five games remaining in the regular season, with three coming on the road. They are a game and a half out of fourth place, which would give them a home game in the Patriot League Tournament. American currently occupies that spot, and not only do the Eagles have a very tough slate left – four of six on the road, including trips to all of the top three teams – but they also host Holy Cross, and the Crusaders beat them by 19 at home last month. That means the Crusaders may have an opportunity to make a move if Tuesday night starts them on a winning path again.
“Hopefully this is something we can build off of,” said Brown. “Our guys have been great as far as coming to work every day and believing in what it is that we’re trying to do. Hopefully this will be a shot in the arm for us.”
