The Spire

Billy Holmes ’25

Staff Writer

On Saturday, February 10th the Holy Cross Crusaders’ Women’s Basketball team traveled to Washington D.C. to go up against the American University Eagles. Going into the contest, the Crusaders held a 14-7 record with 8 wins coming during conference play. However after a very competitive game, American came out on top by a score of 74-68. 

After the conclusion of the first quarter, American was up by a score of 25-19. On the Holy Cross side, despite trailing heading into the second quarter, last year’s Patriot League Championship MVP Bronagh Power-Cassidy put up 10 points in the first quarter, which was a strong indicator for how well she would play for the rest of the game. 

When the second quarter came around, Holy Cross looked to battle back. Despite trailing by as many as 9 points after a strong run from American, Holy Cross was able to go on an 11-4 run and went into halftime only down by 2 points. Power-Cassidy and forward Lindsay Berger played a pivotal role in helping the Crusaders close the gap through their scoring intensity. Power-Cassidy finished the first half with 19 points and Berger showed her effort on a number of occasions, especially with a tremendous steal and coast-to-coast lay up early in the game. 

As the 3rd quarter came about, the Crusaders kept putting up a strong fight and eventually were able to take the lead with over 5 minutes remaining in the quarter. During the quarter, Power-Cassidy was able to hit her 6th three pointer of the night which tied her career high for three pointers in a game. After trailing for the majority of the game, Holy Cross had a 1 point lead at the conclusion of the 3rd quarter. 

After a very competitive fourth quarter, the game went down to the wire. Ultimately, the Crusaders were unable to overcome a 3 point deficit with under a minute remaining and ended up taking the loss on the night. 

When looking over the top performers for Holy Cross the top three scorers on the night were Power-Cassidy with 24 points, Berger, who finished with 12 points and senior Cara McCormack, who finished with 11. Sophomore guard Kaitlyn Flanagan also pitched in with 10 points and a team high 7 assists. 

When looking towards the standout performances from the players on the American side, senior guard Anna LeMaster led the way in terms of scoring with 16. Laura Nogues, Kayla Henning and Molly Lavin all reached double digits in scoring as well. 

With the inclusion of this loss, Holy Cross has now dropped 3 of their last 4 games. However, they are still firmly above .500 in large part due to their 9 game winning streak which concluded with a victory over American on January 24th. After the game, Holy Cross head coach Maureen Magarity gave a great deal of credit to American for their performance on their Senior Day, while also showing satisfaction for the effort which was shown from the Crusaders. With her comments post game, Magarity expressed her emphasis towards the team playing respectable defense, but needing to close out possessions and avoid fouling in order to win these types of games.

Although the team has hit a little bit of a skid at this point in the season, they still sit atop of the Patriot League standings. An interesting trend to keep an eye on for the Crusaders is their home and away records so far this season. At home, the Crusaders have posted an impressive 10-1 record on the season while on the road they currently have 4 wins and 7 losses. If the team is able to boost their road record up, their chances for a second straight Patriot League Championship and another NCAA tournament bid would be bolstered. The Crusaders will look to bounce back against the 12-13 Colgate Raiders on Wednesday, February 14th in Worcester. This contest will have taken place before the publication of this article.