WORCESTER, Mass. – Senior forward Gerrale Gates posted his fourth double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but the Holy Cross men's basketball team was defeated by Quinnipiac 75-71 at the Hart Center at the Luth Athletic Complex. The Crusaders fall to 3-7 overall, while the Bobcats improve to 8-2 on the year.

Sophomore forward Caleb Kenney finished the night with 15 points, seven rebounds and three steals, and junior guard Bo Montgomery tallied 15 points, four rebounds and three assists. In addition, freshman guard Will Batchelder had 14 points and four rebounds, while hitting four of nine attempts from three-point range. Quinnipiac was led by Ike Nweke with 15 points.

The game was close throughout a first half which featured three ties and nine lead changes. The Bobcats held a seven-point lead (21-14) at the 11:12-mark, before Holy Cross scored the next five points to close the gap. Neither team led by more than four points for the remainder of the half, before Quinnipiac to a 36-35 advantage into the locker room.

The Bobcats were later up 42-40 with 17:22 left to play, when they scored 15 straight points over the next seven minutes to take a 57-40 lead. The Crusaders responded with a 12-4 run to get back into the game, but were still down by eight (67-59) with five minutes remaining. Holy Cross scored the next five points to cut the deficit to three (67-64), and would close to within two (72-70) on a layup by Gates with 22.7 seconds left in regulation. On Quinnipiac's next possession, Luis Kortright made the first of two free throws and missed the second, but the Bobcats were able to grab an offensive rebound before Kortright drained two foul shots to put the game away.

The Crusaders made 73.1 percent of their free throws on the night, but were only able to connect on 41.8 percent of their shots from the floor and 30.0 percent of their three-pointers. Quinnipiac hit 47.5 percent of its field goal attempts and committed just eight turnovers, but only made 11.8 percent of its shots from three-point range.

Holy Cross returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 10, when it travels to Northeastern for a 2:00 p.m. game.

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