HAMILTON – Senior captain Jhazmine Lynch closed out her final game on Cotterell Court scoring a season-high 25 points as the Colgate women's basketball team fell 53-51 to Holy Cross here Saturday afternoon.

“Just a tough ending,” Raiders head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “Our team showed a lot of fight, a lot of focus. We came out and our defense was so good for so long. It was tremendous.

“That's why this is so hard. It's not like we can say we had this eight-minute lull that has gotten us all season. We didn't have a lull. They just made a great play at the end.”

Colgate (9-20, 3-11 PL) saw Lynch score in double figures for the 14th time this year. She went 10-of-16 from the floor and added a career high six steals. Fellow classmate Lulu Brase added six points to the Raider total. Brase and Carole Harris both pulled down a team-high five rebounds in the loss.

“It's really tough for the kids right now because we thought this would have been a big win for us to propel us into the Patriot League (Tournament),” Hays Fort said. “Now we just have to regroup and get ready for Thursday.”

The Raiders shot 29 percent in the second half after shooting 35.7 percent in the first 20 minutes. Overall, Colgate made 19 of its 59 attempts from the floor and two of 16 shots from downtown.

Holy Cross (16-13, 8-6 PL) notched two players in double digits, with Amy Lepley leading the way on 14 points. She also scored the game-winning basket with one second left to lift the Crusaders over the Raiders. Alex Smith scored 12 points and drained two of her five from behind the arc. Smith and Molly Hourigan both notched eight boards on the afternoon to lead all players.

The Crusaders hit 17 of their 46 attempts for 37 percent overall shooting. Holy Cross outrebounded the Raiders 41-31, but the Raiders outscored the Crusaders 26-18 in the paint.

Early Deficit
Holy Cross took a 7-0 lead early in the game before Brase ended the Raiders drought with two free throws. Lepley led the Crusaders during that stretch with four of those seven points. The Raiders would rally, going on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 9-all with 13:08 remaining in the half. Colgate continued its dominant offense, going on another 11-2 run to take the lead by nine at 20-11.

The Crusaders would get the deficit down to four after five straight points, but a Catherine Lewis trey put the Raiders back up 23-16. Colgate finished the half with the five-point advantage at 30-25, as both teams headed into the locker room.

Colgate came out on fire, scoring six straight points to earn its largest lead of the game at 36-25 with 17:22 remaining. Ashley Cooper cut the Raiders lead back down to single digits after a made 3-pointer. Holy Cross grabbed another bucket to pull within 36-30 with 15:15 left to play.

The Raiders maintained their six-point advantage until Holy Cross notched two baskets to close the gap to 44-43 with 8:32 to go in the game. Lepley then put the Crusaders on top by one, giving them their first lead since the 13:31 mark in the first half.

With under eight minutes remaining, Holy Cross held the one-point advantage at 45-44 over the Raiders. Over the next five minutes, both teams saw three lead changes and two ties. With the game tied at 49, both teams turned up their defensive effort. Hourigan put the Crusaders up by two with 28 seconds remaining after she finished off a layup.

Senior Confidence
Colgate would not go away, however, as Lynch answered on the other end of the court with 13 seconds left to tie the game at 51-all.

“We were just running a play for Jhazmine to go to the basket,” Hays Fort said. “I originally was going to run something for a post-up, but Jhazmine was attacking the glass so well – she had 25.

“You put it in the hands of your seniors and that's what we did. I knew Jhazmine wasn't going to go down without a fight. She had a great attack. We just didn't get a stop at the end.”

As the time ticked off the clock, Lepley found an opening with one second remaining to notch the game-winning basket and the win for Holy Cross.

“We actually played really good defense that last possession,” Hays Fort said. “Lepley threw in a heck of a shot. We were on her, she was contested, we were playing great defense – I thought we were going to overtime.

“And then she throws it in off the glass with her left hand.”

The Raiders are the eighth seed in the Patriot League Tournament and face Army in West Point, N.Y., on Thursday. The quarterfinal game is set for a 7 p.m. tip. The teams split the season series, with both earning wins on their home court.

“At this time of year you've got to beat everybody, so it doesn't truly matter who you play. It's going to be tough just because we're going to have to win three in a row on the road – we have to win one in a row three times, I should say.

“We've just got to come out and be tough. We've got to bring this same exact intensity to Thursday.”