WORCESTER, Mass. – Junior forward
Matt Faw tied his career-high with 22 points and pulled down a career-best nine rebounds as the Holy Cross men's basketball team came back from 17 points down to defeat Lehigh 96-95 in overtime at the Hart Center at the Luth Athletic Complex. The Crusaders improve to 3-17 on the season and 2-5 in the Patriot League with the win, while the Mountain Hawks fall to 5-14 overall and 2-5 in the conference.
Lehigh led 59-42 with 14:23 left to play in the second half, when Holy Cross scored 12 straight points over the next 2:12 to trim the margin to five (59-54). The Mountain Hawks were still up by eight (80-72) with four minutes remaining in regulation, and held an 84-79 advantage with 1:35 on the clock. A basket by Faw brought the Crusaders to within three (84-81), before Lehigh's Jordan Cohen missed the front end of a one-and-one with 28.8 seconds to go. Freshman guard
Ryan Wade then drained a long three-pointer with just 7.3 seconds left to tie the game at 84-84 and force overtime.
In the extra session, the score was tied at 91-91 before Faw drove to the basket for a layup with 21.2 seconds left to give Holy Cross the lead for good. Freshman forward
Joe Pridgen would add a pair of key free throws with 2.4 seconds on the clock to give the Crusaders an insurmountable 96-92 advantage, before a three-pointer by Cohen as time expired concluded the scoring.
Holy Cross made 52.5 percent of its field goal attempts on the night, while setting season highs for three-pointers made (14) and three-point percentage (56.0 percent). The Mountain Hawks connected on 52.9 percent of their shots from the floor and 50.0 percent of their three-pointers.
All five of the Crusaders' starters scored in double figures, including Pridgen (20 points), junior forward
Connor Niego (19 points), Wade (16 points) and junior guard
Austin Butler (14 points). Cohen led Lehigh with a game-high 34 points.
Holy Cross returns to action on Saturday, Jan. 25, when it plays host to Boston University at 2:00 p.m. as part of Winter Homecoming weekend.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
• The Crusaders posted their largest comeback victory since Jan. 18, 2017, when they rallied from a 56-39 second half deficit for an 85-76 win at Army.
• Holy Cross' 14 made three-pointers came up just one shy of the school single-game record of 15, which has been accomplished twice (on Jan. 11, 2006 vs. Army and Nov. 19, 2015 against New Hampshire).
• Niego set a new career high in scoring with his 19 points.
• Faw and Pridgen gave the Crusader two 20-point scorers in the same game for the first time this year.
