Holy Cross – Game 14

[LU65Participant]

Game Notes

Lu’s

We await

HC’s

http://www.goholycross.com/sports/m-baskbl/2014-15/releases/20150213t26abj

Oh great! It’s their Winter Homecoming Game

KenPom
LU’s (14-10, 8-5) ranked 187th
@
HC’s (10-13, 5-8) ranked 256th
HC wins 69-67 (51% chance)

Commentary

Team Ball and Unselfish Play: 2 phrases you hear most often these days from radio and television announcers – both local and national, our head coach and our players. To me, it’s at the heart of our wins and can best be demonstrated by the stat entitled “Assisted Baskets” or quite simply Assists/Field Goals Made. Here’s a look at our PL experience to date.

Our 5 Losses

Assists: 59
FGM: 113
Assist Rate: .522

Our 8 Wins

Assists: 144
FGM: 206
Assist Rate: .699

And, it’s just keeps getting better and better. Over the last four games – all wins – the assist rate is a cool 75.9%.

I rest my case.

Before you put this game against in the Win Column, remember HC is 4 – 3 at home with two of the “W’s” coming against the teams tied at the top of the League: Colgate and Bucknell. Winners of their last two of three, they must to be thinking ….beat Lehigh, earn a sweep over LC and Navy in our next two (thereby evening our record @ 8-8), and then take our chances against Loyola and Boston U. Who knows, maybe we’ll host playoff game after all! Crazier things have happened.

Hoops00, I know you’ll be at the game. Knowing your W/L records when in attendance, I may be soliciting donations to keep you at home.

[LUHoops00Participant]

65, weather might be HC cryptonite as it might keep me home, keep ya posted.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Wow. Only takes one turd of a half like that one to bring me back down to earth. Hope we get right in the second half…

[vanParticipant]

regression

[LU65Participant]

Sure glad we bused-up yesterday to get ready for this one! And, Colgate lost today. What a shame.

[toddcuddParticipant]

TK played his guts out; I feel bad for him. Can’t win without help.

[RichHParticipant]

And the seesaw is back. Cant win many only playing one half.First half just embarrassing. Hoped we got past this crap. Not so much it seems.

[lehigh90Participant]

We can’t win at Hart. Ever.

[LUHoops00Participant]

Don’t know why I ever go to see then at HC, it’s a freekin debacle every year no matter who suits up for us. Only positive was I drove through snow both ways safely, other then that, a complete mess. 2 for last 22 up here.

[jimk72Participant]

Looking at the box score its obvious the Holy Cross Hart House of Horrors is still haunting us. 29% from the field. 3 of 16 from three. If we’re going to have one more stinker in the shooting department this year (hopefully only one) now’s the time to get it out of the way. Holy Cross didn’t exactly light it up either. All in all the box indicates a really ugly game.

[toddcuddParticipant]

Yup. That box don’t lie!!

[LU65Participant]

What to blame it on? Perhaps………..

A short turnaround. We played on Thursday, bused (5 hour) on Friday, and played on Saturday

KR, MS, and BA – all new to Hart Center

Inflated egos. Hey, why not. We averaged 81.5 ppg in winning our last four. And, didn’t we beat this team before with Ross, Price and Kempton combining for 52.

Underestimating the strength of this team and failing to remember this team has already beaten Bucknell and Colgate!

Not believing KenPom (ha) who forecasted a two point win by HC

How bad was it?

We made only 16 field goals – a season low

We were credited with only 5 Assists – a season low (see my opening post to this thread). Far too many rushed and ill-advised shots. Team-ball took a day off.

We hit more free throws (17) than field goals (16) – never did that before this year

We went 3 for 18 from deep – third worse of the year

We lost to a team that hit only 36.2% of their shots – a season low

Brandon’s funk continues (1 for 7 today and 2 for 18 over last six)

Except for logging a combined 3 defensive rebounds in 29 minutes of playing time, CS, MS, and SC were MIA

We turned the ball over 14 times. KR, with five, was the biggest offender. He’s lucky; by my count, it should have been 6. Sure he hit for double figures (10) again but he connected on just 3 of 10 and needed to go 5 for 5 to make the points scored look respectable.

Bench Play. Our guys went 2 of 13; their guys went 13 for 21. We had no answer for their 6’4” jr. guard, Eric Green, who went 6 for 9 in scoring 13. This after a 5 for 7 night against Army three nights ago. Scouting…game planning?

This loss reminds me of the way I felt after our 19 point loss to Boston U. back in Game 2. We recovered nicely with a 9 point win over Army on the road. It’s time we do it again….this time against Navy on the road Wednesday night.

[TMHParticipant]

This game was going to be a problem. The turnaround from Thursday night to Saturday afternoon from a planning perspective is one issue. There are a lot of bumps and bruises that could have used another day to recover. I have no idea when they left for Mass. but that bus ride and the weather condition in that part of the country created an ideal scenario for a slow start.
In spite all that, I still think that when it matters, this Lehigh team has all the pieces to win it all if they can put 3 complete games together. I’m not that down on them at this time.

[lfnadminKeymaster]

HC is the one team I want no part of anywhere in the tourney. Their strengths are their bigs and they took Goldy and Chuku out of the game completely. Kempton almost carried the team on his back to win – and that was the one positive thing that came of this tough game. Tim has that capability. That’s going to be something to watch.

[LU15Participant]

Guys, lets not panic. It was one game, and had a couple shots fallen it would have been an ugly win. I’m sure the short turnaround combined with long bus trip had a factor. Nice to see TK put the team on his back.

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