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2014 Patriot League Semifinals: Cold Shooting Dooms Holy Cross in Second Half, American Advances

Holy Cross looked to be in control against American, even on the road. But then someone lowered the lid on the basket for the visiting team.

John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

Holy Cross went into halftime with the lead over American University. The Crusaders were 20 minutes away from a trip to Boston to play for the Patriot League title.

The only problem was that they left their shot in the visiting locker room at American.

The Eagles took advantage of cold shooting by Holy Cross to earn a 57-46 win and a change to play for the conference title.

With 16 minutes remaining in the game, Anthony Thompson hit a 3-pointer for the Crusaders, and then everyone forgot how to shoot. Holy Cross held a 10-point lead at the time, and then... nothing.

For nearly seven minutes.

And then nothing again.

For seven more minutes.

Yes, that is right; Holy Cross scored one basket over a 14-minute stretch in the second half. You can't win that way. You can't even hang close that way.

They didn't score. They didn't even go to the line to shoot free throws. There was just nothing.

It wasn't as if Mike Brennan's Eagles did much better. Even with the run, American barely got to 44 percent shooting in the game.

So, no. Neither team had a great performance, and neither team maybe earned a chance to be in the finals against Boston University.

But American will be there, and they need to be very wary given the way that the Terriers took care of business Saturday, and what happened the last time that the Eagles faced off against BU.

Jesse Reed led American with 18 points, but shot just 6-for-16 from the floor. Tony Wroblicky added nine points and seven assists in the win.

For Holy Cross, it was all Dave Dudzinsky. The senior scored 22 points and added nine rebounds. Malcolm Miller had 10 points, 10 boards and two blocks in the loss.