Following a pattern that began several weeks ago, the AU Women's Basketball team split its weekend, defeating Army, 51-47, before losing to Holy Cross, 56-47.
The Eagles lost to the Crusaders, who are undefeated in the league, after taking a 27-19 lead with a 14-0 run to start the second half. Sophomore guard Tara Williams led AU with 13 points, and senior center Kim Salem followed with 10.
Head coach Melissa McFerrin equated the Holy Cross game to a PL championship game and said that if the Eagles wanted to win, they had to play perfect basketball - which they did not in the second half.
After starting the half with 14 straight points, the Eagles fell victim to a 10-0 Crusader run that they never recovered from.
Holy Cross had a balanced scoring attack, led by Brittany Keil's 14 points and Jessica Conte's and Maggie Fontana's 13 each.
The Eagles registered their biggest win of the season Friday night, a 51-47 decision at Army's Christl Arena.
The Eagles were led by senior forward Chanel Hunt, who scored 19 points on an efficient 7 of 12 from the field as she played her best game of the season.
"Chanel attacked the basket and played very aggressively when she had the ball in her hands," McFerrin said. "She took a lot of pride in her defense [on Friday] as well."
Hunt guarded the PL's second-leading scorer, freshman guard Cara Enright, and held her to six points on 3-of-13 shooting. Along with Hunt, senior guard Joanna Barnes also guarded the freshman sensation.
"Like everyone, we look at the statistics, and she's the second-leading scorer since league play has started, and we really made an effort to stop her today," McFerrin said.
With the game tied at 12 with 11 minutes left in the first half, a Hunt jumper started a dominant 15-0 run that lasted more than seven minutes, leaving the Eagles with a dominant advantage at the end of the first half.
Hunt scored nine of the 15 points in the run, including a back-breaking 3-pointer. The Eagles entered the locker room up by 13.
AU dominated much of the second half until the final minutes, when it missed the front end of three one-and-ones. On the last miss, Army did such a good job of boxing out that the rebound bounced on the floor for several seconds before the Eagles picked it up and Hunt knocked down two key free throws.
"We had a very business-like approach coming into the game, and I felt like we pretty much controlled the game throughout," McFerrin said. "We still didn't hit our free throws, but a win's a win."
In both games, the Eagles committed 30 turnovers, which is right around their season average.
The Eagles return home for a weekend against Bucknell and Colgate. The Bison are in last place in the PL with a 1-8 record, while the game against Colgate is especially important for the Eagles, who trail the Raiders by one game for third in the league standings.
