HAMILTON – Eleven straight Holy Cross points midway in the third quarter sparked the Crusaders to a 71-64 Patriot League victory over Colgate here Friday night.
 
The Raiders had rallied from a 34-28 halftime deficit to take a 39-37 lead in the opening 3:10 of the third quarter. Summer King was 3-of-3 from the field in that stretch, Rachel Thompson added a transition layup and Haley Greer knocked down a 3-pointer to hand Colgate its first lead since 13-12.
 
But King picked up her third foul at the 6:05 mark, went to the bench, and Holy Cross responded by scoring the next 11 points to take a 48-39 advantage with 3:21 left in the quarter.
 
The last six of those points in a 25-second flurry came directly off steals from a full-court Crusader press. Holy Cross for the game forced 23 Colgate turnovers and turned that into a 29-5 scoring edge in points-off-turnovers.
 
Foul shooting also hurt the Raiders, who finished 16-of-26 from the line for 61.5 percent. Colgate was better than 70 percent from the line in each of its first three game of the year but hasn't reached that mark since and is down to 67.9 percent for the season.
 
Greer made 1-of-2 at the line with 2:40 remaining to pull Colgate within 60-59, and the Raiders forced a missed shot and had possession, only to turn it over. Holy Cross scored the next six points and pulled away for the seven-point victory.
 
King and Kateri Stone shared Colgate scoring honors with 12 apiece. Mylah Chandler and Abby Schubiger were the team rebounding leaders at seven apiece.
 
Tricia Byrne of Holy Cross led all scorers with 19.
 
Bottom Line
Holy Cross 71, Colgate 64
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate drops its Patriot League opener and is now 4-8 overall.
• Holy Cross improved to 6-6.
 
Facts & Figures
• Colgate's best defensive effort of the season limited Holy Cross to just 29 percent from the field.
• But the Crusaders outscored Colgate 28-16 at the free throw line.
• Colgate won the rebounding column for the third time in the last five games, 41-36.
• The four-game Colgate losing streak is the longest since the 2015-16 team lost nine in a row.
• Stone made two 3-pointers to up her career total to 102. She needs four more to tie Paige Kriftcher '16 for 10th place in program history.
• Colgate limited Holy Cross' top two scorers, Infiniti Thomas-Waheed and Lauren Manis, to just 14 and eight points, respectively. They entered as the league's top two scorers averaging 18.8 and 18.5
• Schubiger matched her career best with seven rebounds and tied her season high with seven points.
• Chandler had a season-high seven boards.
• Greer posted career highs with five rebounds and three steals. Her eight points tied a season high.
 
From the Source
• Head coach Bill Cleary (On the third-quarter rally) "We challenged our players and we challenged Summer King, and Summer stepped up and responded the way we expected her to. And not just Summer but the team. They did a great job. They listened to what we wanted to do and they went out and did it.
 
"But we had some miscues and some missed foul shots. When you are missing those, those are missed opportunities. Credit Holy Cross because they are a good team. We are proud of our players for responding after Niagara, but we've got to finish games and we've got to finish possessions. In a close game like tonight, that's big."
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance at Cotterell Court was 302.
 
Up Next
• Colgate stays home for one more Patriot League encounter when American visits for a Tuesday afternoon tip.
• The Eagles are 8-4 overall after Friday night's 68-58 win against Bucknell.
• Tipoff is 2 p.m. from Cotterell Court, with the Patriot League Network and WKXZ-FM carrying all the action.