CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Freshman guard
Kyrell Luc totaled 17 points, three rebounds and two steals, but the Holy Cross men's basketball team was defeated by Harvard 62-54 at Lavietes Pavilion. The Crusaders fall to 2-10 on the season, while the Crimson improve to 7-4 overall.
Holy Cross turned in one of its top defensive performances of the season, holding Harvard to 36.5 percent shooting from the field and 16.7 percent shooting from three-point range. But the Crusaders were only able to make 36.2 percent of their shots from the field and 25.0 percent of their attempts from beyond the arc, while committing 16 turnovers.
The Crimson opened the game by jumping out to an early 9-3 lead, and were later up 19-13 with nine minutes left in the first half. Holy Cross then went on a 9-0 run to claim the lead, including six points by Luc. But Harvard came back to close out the half with a 13-2 spurt to take a 32-24 advantage into the locker room.
The Crimson led by five points (36-31) early in the second half, before going on a 13-3 run to claim their biggest lead of the day (49-34) with 12:33 left to play. Harvard was still up by 13 (57-44) with five minutes remaining, when the Crusaders scored six straight points to cut the margin to seven (57-50) with 1:44 left to play. But that would be as close as Holy Cross would get, as the Crimson pulled out an eight-point victory.
Freshman forward
Caleb Kenney posted the first double-double of his collegiate career with 10 points and 11 rebounds, while sophomore forward
Louth-M Coulibaly finished with seven points and a career-best 10 boards. Harvard was led by Chris Ledlum with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The Crusaders return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 22, when they travel to St. Joseph's for a 6:00 p.m. game.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
• Holy Cross played the game without sophomore guard
R.J. Johnson (injury) and senior guard
Malcolm Townsel (non-COVID illness).
• Kenney recorded career highs for both rebounds (11) and steals (three).
• The Crusaders pulled down 42 rebounds on the day, their most against a Division I opponent since Feb. 23, 2014 (45 rebounds against Navy).
