NCAA
Lafayette 76, Holy Cross 64
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
In one of the Patriot League’s biggest upsets of the season, Lafayette — which came into Wednesday’s game with just four conference wins — toppled third-place Holy Cross 76-64 in Worcester, Mass.
Lafayette’s Fran O’Hanlon set the all-time record for Patriot League coaching victories with 127, passing former Bucknell coach Pat Flannery.
Guard Seth Hinrichs scored 21 points to lead the Leopards, who continued their run of good fortune at the Hart Center, where Lafayette has won five straight. They also snapped the Crusaders’ four-game overall winning streak.
Lafayette avenged a bitter, 59-58 defeat almost a month ago when the Crusaders won on the Leopards’ home floor.
Lafayette (9-17, 5-10 Patriot League) jumped out to a 39-34 lead at the half and kept building its advantage. The Leopards, who won their third game in a row and their fifth in the past six, had three players in double figures at the half — Hinrichs, guard Joey Ptasinski and guard Nick Lindner — and the trio all finished with big numbers.
Lindler had 17 points and six assists, while Ptasinski added 16 points.
Holy Cross (16-11, 10-5) came into the game as the hottest team in the Patriot League, going 9-1 in its last 10 games, and the Crusaders were poised to move into second place with a win Wednesday. However, they shot 5-for-25 from 3-point range and trailed by as many as 18 points.
Center Dave Dudzinski paced the Crusaders with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Holy Cross also got 13 points from guard Anthony Thompson but had no other players reach double figures.
The Leopards play their final regular-season home game Sunday against rival Lehigh. Holy Cross remains home and to play Navy on Sunday.
