First-half struggles plagued the Eagles once again on Saturday as the team fell behind early in their loss to Holy Cross, 61-54. The defeat gives the Crusaders sole possession of third place in the Patriot League and drops AU into a tie with Lafayette for fourth at 5-7 in the league.
Holy Cross took control of the game from the opening tip-off and never gave up the lead. An 18-4 run in the first eight minutes of the half gave the Eagles a deficit that they could not recover from.
Liz Hayes hit a three-pointer to break a five minute scoring drought for the Eagles, but the Crusaders responded with another 11-0 run to put them up by 22 points, their largest margin of the game.
The Eagles would cut the lead down to 13 with three-pointers by Hayes and Rachel Brazell before heading into halftime trailing 36-22.
Holy Cross would continue their hot play, as they increased their halftime lead from 14 to 20 in the opening minutes of the half. Finding themselves once again down by double-digits in the second half of a game, AU would be forced to attempt another large comeback to gain a victory.
Led by Hayes' 11 second-half points, the Eagles begin to chip away at the Holy Cross lead as they went on an 11-0 run of their own, cutting the Crusader lead to seven with 2:55 remaining in the game.
This would be as close as the Eagles would get, as a three-pointer by Holy Cross' Bethany O'Dell ended AU's run and sealed the eventual 61-54 victory for the Crusaders.
Holy Cross' Kaitlin Foley recorded a double-double in the win, scoring a game-high 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds. Liz Hayes was the leading scorer in the defeat, scoring 17 points of her own.
The Eagles have two games remaining in their regular season to improve their seeding before getting ready for the Patriot League Tournament. The team travels to Annapolis, Md., to take on Navy on Tuesday night before returning to Bender Arena for the last home game of the season on Saturday afternoon.
