Army Struggles Offensively, Falls to Holy Cross

WORCESTER, Mass. – The Army West Point women’s basketball team couldn’t find its groove on offense on Saturday afternoon, as it dropped its road contest against Holy Cross 63-48 at the Hart Center.

Army (16-5, 7-3) was unable to play consistent offense and string together defensive stops against Holy Cross (13-8, 7-3) as the two teams split the regular season series 1-1.

The Black Knights got off to a good start to open the afternoon, as Kya Smith and Brooke Wilson each knocked down a three to give Army an early 6-2 advantage. However, the offense cooled after that, and the Crusaders went on a 9-0 run to jump ahead. Army scored just one point over the final 2:02 of the period and found itself down 13-9 going into the second quarter.

After making its first two shots, Army went 1-12 from the field for the remainder of the period. Holy Cross dominated the battle down low in the period, outscoring Army 12-2 in the paint.

The two teams traded baskets to open the second period and Army wasn’t able to quite string together possessions to cut into the deficit. At the media timeout with 4:55 before halftime, Holy Cross led 20-16. Army continued to struggle offensively coming out of the commercial break and only scored three points the rest of the quarter.

Holy Cross was able to get on the board a couple more times before the teams went to the locker room and held a 29-19 lead after 20 minutes. After the opening two quarters, Army was shooting 25.9 percent from the field while Holy Cross was at 52 percent. Smith and Camryn Tade each had five points for Army at the break.

Despite the rough open to the game, the Black Knights seemed to have found its groove in the third quarter and completely changed the trajectory of the game.

Reese Ericson buried a left wing three just 13 seconds into the second half to cut the team’s deficit to seven and give Army some momentum for the first time all afternoon. However, it seemed that momentum was short lived as the Crusaders got their lead back to nine with 6:26 to go.

On the brink of the game slipping out of Army’s reach, Taylor Wilson was able to add a huge layup just before the media timeout to keep the game in single digits. Coming out of the short break down seven, Reganne Reardon scored eight straight points and gave Army the lead with 1:23 to go before the fourth quarter.

It was the best individual stretch of play in the freshman’s young career and put all the momentum in favor of Army, who had erased a 10-point halftime deficit. Tade added a three to cap off the 13-0 run. On the very next possession, Holy Cross buried a shot from deep right before the buzzer to give Army a 38-37 lead after three periods of play.

Despite the strong third quarter, Holy Cross regained the lead just over a minute into the final frame and never looked back. The Crusaders outscored Army 26-10 in the period while making 9-11 shots. Army was 4-18 from the field in the final frame.