March 6, 2008
Men’s basketball team marches on to Patriot League semifinals
It didn’t take long for March Madness to arrive at AU in full force.
As regular season champions of the Patriot League, the AU men’s basketball team earned the right to host the postseason tournament for as long as it’s in it. The Eagles participation was dangerously close to ending just 40 minutes after it began, but an extraordinary effort by a group of players determined not to lose pushed AU to a thrilling 62-60 victory Wednesday over arch rival Holy Cross.
The Eagles now host Army Sunday at 2 p.m. in the tournament semifinals.
A three-point play by junior Brian Gilmore with just 18 seconds remaining followed by an excruciatingly long 18 seconds of hard-nosed defense was the difference for AU, which beat Holy Cross at Bender Arena for the first time since 2004. It wasn’t always pretty, but in the postseason, window dressing matters not.
“The big thing was we didn’t get rattled,” said head coach Jeff Jones, whose team overcame an 11 point first-half deficit and trailed by six at halftime. “After getting off to a start where Holy Cross was the aggressor, I thought we settled down and played pretty steady the last seven or eight minutes of the first half and throughout the second half. We did a much better job on the boards in the second half and taking care of the ball, only having one turnover.”
Playing in front of a raucous home crowd, AU got off to a slow start before clawing its way back into the game. The Eagles controlled the second half, hitting seven-of-nine three pointers, shooting 53 percent from the field.
That kind of effort will be needed from the jump against a tough Army team that upset Lehigh in its first round game. The Black Knights play in-your-face defense, a fact that’s not lost on anyone at AU. Though the Eagles swept both meetings with Army this season, winning 66-53 in West Point and 49-40 in Washington, the Black Knights held AU to just 28 percent shooting in the Feb. 20 contest in Bender.
“Up there we played a really solid game and were able to stretch out a lead,” Jones said. “Similar to last night we had a number of different guys contribute; it was a very workman-like effort. Here in Bender it was a struggle. Both teams played really aggressively defensively. For us to win shooting 28 percent was pretty incredible. We played well defensively; we rebounded the ball. We didn’t get many open looks. The thing that carried us through with our shooting being as poor as it was, was we were driving the basketball and we got to the free throw line quite a bit.”
Jones expects a similarly hard fought battle on Sunday. The road to the NCAA Tournament—two victories away—never is easy. Limiting turnovers and matching Army’s defensive intensity will be the keys, he said. He’s also hoping for another strong effort from the Eagle faithful.
“The crowd was great,” Jones said after the Holy Cross game. “I think our guys fed off that. It was a fun night for AU basketball.”
