Brendan Grudberg ’28
Staff Writer
The Holy Cross Men’s and Women’s Basketball teams wrapped up long trips this past weekend, with the women’s team going down to Durham, North Carolina to face off against #7 ranked Duke. The men left the East Coast entirely, heading to Utah to face #8 BYU and the University of Utah.
This is a common practice in collegiate athletics, where a school from a “lesser” conference like Holy Cross is brought out to face a top opponent for funding reasons. That context goes out to answer all the people who asked a question like “what the **** is Holy Cross doing playing the potential #1 NBA Draft pick?” Short answer: it’s going to help them.
But these long journeys were more than just program funding–playing tougher, nationally ranked competition can set yourself up for success in conference play by getting a taste of what the “best of the best” play like. Both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams couldn’t keep up against their top-10 ranked foes score wise, but the value of the experience goes beyond anything the scoreboard indicated.
The first of these high level matchups took place on Saturday, Nov. 8, where the men’s team faced Brigham Young University (BYU) at their home arena in Provo, Utah.
BYU is an especially noteworthy opponent this season, as the Cougars were able to land a commitment from the number one high school recruit in the nation, AJ Dybantsa.
BYU’s great recruiting strategies (handing over millions of dollars) have made them more relevant as an athletic program, and the Crusaders stepped right into the fire, playing the Cougs for their home opener.
The game, unfortunately, went as you would expect, with the Cougars in control the entire game and finishing two points shy of 100 on 61.9% field goal efficiency. The Crusaders struggled to settle into a rowdy home environment that never wavered from buzzer to buzzer.
In the first half, the Crusaders shot 9-for-32 overall and 0-for-13 on threes, indicative of both struggling to generate easy shots (40% of shots being threes) and struggling to take in rhythm three pointers.
They were able to calm down in the second half and play up to their standards, taking less threes proportionately and shooting 43% overall. The loss in Provo ultimately gave the Crusaders a taste of what a top-level team and atmosphere look like. The top scorer for Holy Cross was sophomore guard Tyler Boston with 12. Aidan Richard added an efficient 11 (4-for-7 FG, 2-for-2 on three-pointers).
Next was the women’s team, taking on #7 Duke at the famous Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, N.C. Holy Cross came into this game 1-0, having previously taken down Boston College with an exciting buzzer-beating finish by Simone Foreman.
The Crusaders hung with the Blue Devils for the first quarter, thanks to some hot shooting, but they couldn’t maintain the 67% three point shooting for the remaining three periods, and Duke pulled away.
Duke was simply the bigger and stronger team in this one. Sophomore forward Toby Fournier had her way with 27 points and 9 rebounds, shooting 11-for-17 and perhaps most impressively, 3-for-3 on threes.
Holy Cross’ strategy seemed to involve letting the 6-foot-2 Fournier shoot as many threes as she wanted, and unfortunately for them, she made the most of those open looks.
Mary-Elizabeth Donnelly was the leading scorer for the Crusaders, adding 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting and 3-for-6 from deep. Kaitlyn Flanagan added nine points and 3 assists, and Simone Foreman grabbed 6 rebounds to go with six points.
To conclude the set of 3 high-power matchups for the Holy Cross basketball teams, the men faced the Utah Utes on Monday. Utah, while not nationally ranked, is a part of the same conference as BYU (Big-12) and came into Monday’s matchup 2-0.
This one was much closer for the Crusaders, losing by 18 but hovering around a 10-point deficit for most of the game. Their shooting improvements in the second half of the BYU game definitely carried over, as the Crusaders shot a more true-to-form 9-for-26 on long range shots, eight of which coming from Joe Nugent (5-for-9) and Aidan Richard (3-for-7).
Nugent had a team-high 19 points, and Richard finished with 13. Holy Cross’ pitfall in this one was once again their inside defense–Utah shot 60% on two pointers. It’s not a knock on Holy Cross’ defensive strategy so much as it is an inherent limitation of a team starting a lineup without a true big.
Holy Cross’ biggest player in the starting five stands 6-foot-7, being first-year forward Aiden Disu. Utah outrebounded the Crusaders by 10 overall and by two offensively, leading to more possessions and a win despite Holy Cross’ best efforts.
Both of the basketball teams will move on from these tough matchups as better teams, and the road ahead looks much more manageable.
The men return this weekend at the Brown Bears Invitational in Providence, R.I., to face the Hampton Pirates as well as the aforementioned Brown Bears.
For the women, they will have played their home opener by the time this is published, also against Brown. Past that, they travel to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to face the Marist Red Foxes on Sunday and then to Kingston, R.I. to face the Rhode Island Rams on Wednesday, Nov. 19.
Featured image courtesy of The Duke Chronicle
Copy Edited by Sophia Mariani ’26
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