Army Hosts Holy Cross on Wednesday

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army welcomes Holy Cross to Christl Arena on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.

The contest will be streamed live on the Patriot League Network with Rich DeMarco on the call. This game will be a rematch of last year's Patriot League Semifinal contest in which the Crusaders notched a 60-38 road victory. That win was Holy Cross' third of four straight wins, which handed the Crusaders their sixth league crown in program history.

The Black Knights are coming off a 53-49 road victory against American on Saturday. That win pushed the young Cadets' league mark to 2-4 and extended their overall record to 8-10.

The Crusaders recently dropped a 68-51 decision at Lehigh on Saturday, pulling them to 3-3 in the conference. Malachi Alexander was the lone student-athlete to reach double figures in that game for Holy Cross after he finished with 15 points. It was a 27-26 Crusaders edge at the break, but the Mountain Hawks used a 42-24 advantage in the second half to pull out the win. Holy Cross has some notable wins over Harvard, Albany, Quinnipiac, and Marist, before opening league play with victories over Navy, Colgate and Lafayette.

HOW TO FOLLOW
VIDEO • Patriot League Network
RADIO • Army West Point Sports Network
WBNR (1260 AM, Beacon, N.Y.)
WLNA (1420 AM, Peekskill, N.Y.)
AUDIO • Knight Vision
LIVE STATISTICS • www.GoArmyWestPoint.com
TICKETS • www.GoArmyWestPoint.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_MBB
GAME NOTES • Army | Holy Cross

ABOUT THE CRUSADERS
    Leading Holy Cross during its last outing at Lehigh was Malachi Alexander, who finished 6-of-9 from the field, 2-of-5 from behind-the-arc and 1-for-2 from the charity stripe for his team-best 15 points. He was the only player to reach twin figures for the Crusaders. Anthony Thompson compiled a team-high five rebounds, while Charles Karl handed out a team-best four assists. The Crusaders converted on just 28.6 percent (6-of-21) of their three-pointers, but closed out the game shooting 40.0 percent (20-of-50) from the floor.
    Overall Alexander is averaging a team-best 14.2 points per game, which is good enough for ninth in the league. Robert Champion follows closely with 12.5 points per outing, while Karl comes in third with a mark of 9.7 points per contest. Alexander's 5.4 rebounds per game is tops on the team, followed by marks of 3.6 and 3.5 boards per game by Charles and Champion, respectively. Charles is also handing out 3.9 assists per outing, which has him eighth in the conference.

LAST TIME OUT
    Army outlasted American on Saturday afternoon, 53-49. American had whittled down an early first-half 17-point deficit to just 51-49 following a 3-pointer from Jalen Rhea with 1:52 left to play. Neither team was able to net any points over the next one-and-a-half minutes until a critical offensive board by Luke Morrison forced the Eagles to foul with nine seconds remaining. After a time out, Scott Mammel stepped calmly to the free throw line and sank both ends of his 1-and-1 opportunity to ultimately put the game out of reach. The Eagles tried to quickly answer on the opposite end of the floor, but both of Sa'eed Nelson's attempts fell short.
    Matt Wilson tied for a game-high 13 points after going 6-for-8 from the floor and 1-for-2 at the free throw line. Morrison and Jordan Fox followed closely with 11 points each to close out the Black Knights in double figures. Morrison and Wilson collected eight rebounds each to lead the Cadets on the boards, while Fox handed out a game-high eight assists. The Black Knights held American to just 16 points in the opening period, which was Army's best defensive half so far this season. This marked the second time in the last three games the Cadets held an opponent to less than 20 points in the first half (Loyola scored just 19 points on Jan. 8).

    Senior Malachi Alexander totaled 15 points and four rebounds, but Holy Cross was defeated by Lehigh 68-51 at Stabler Arena on Saturday. Lehigh scored the first eight points of the day, but Holy Cross responded with an 8-0 run of its own to tie the score at 8-8. The Mountain Hawks came back with a 6-0 spurt, and were able to rebuild their lead to eight points (21-13) with 7:53 left before the break. The Crusaders then went on runs of 7-0 and 5-0 late in the half, to claim a 27-26 advantage heading into the locker room. The Mountain Hawks started the second half on fire, scoring 16 straight points over the first eight minutes to claim a 42-27 advantage. Lehigh was still up by 15 (52-37) with 8:03 remaining before back-to-back three-pointers by Alexander and Anthony Thompson made it a nine-point game (52-43). But the Mountain Hawks responded with a 10-2 run to put the game away, eventually posting a 17-point victory.
                Holy Cross made just 40.0 percent of its field goal attempts, 28.6 percent of its three-pointers and 55.6 percent of its free throws on the day. Lehigh was able to connect on 47.2 percent of its shots from the floor, 41.2 percent from beyond the arc and 84.6 percent at the charity stripe. The Mountain Hawks also held a 40-20 rebounding advantage. Tim Kempton led Lehigh with 23 points and 17 rebounds.

A WIN OVER HOLY CROSS WOULD...
    Hand Army its ninth win of the season and earn the Black Knights their fifth victory over the Crusaders in the last 10 meetings. It would also hand the Cadets their third win of the early Patriot League season, pulling them to 3-4.

ARMY VS. PATRIOT LEAGUE TEAMS
    The Black Knights are 265-379 all-time against current members of the Patriot League. Of the nine other schools in the league, Army has faced Navy (125 times), Colgate (120 times) and Lehigh (105 times) the most. Army leads three series against Patriot League schools in Colgate (61-59), Lehigh (63-42), and Loyola (5-3). The Cadets have also competed against American (11-26), Boston University (8-14), Bucknell (21-52), Holy Cross (21-62), Lafayette (27-44) and Navy (48-77).

SHARP SHOOTIN'
    Rookie Matt Wilson is currently leading the Black Knights with his .677 field goal percentage. The first-year has converted on 86 of his 127 attempts from the floor. Mac Hoffman is also having a solid senior campaign, holding a .493 field goal percentage (36-of-73).

ROOKIE DUO
    Two freshmen have settled into their new roles with the Black and Gold quite nicely as both Tommy Funk and Matt Wilson are slowly starting to make a name for themselves. Funk is second on the team in assists with 70, while Wilson is second in rebounding to Mac Hoffman with 98 boards. The two can do their fair share of scoring as well with Wilson registering his career high (20 points) during the Black Knights' outing at Fairfield and at St. Bonaventure. Funk earned his career-best 13 points on four different occasions so far this season with his most recent coming in Army's outing against Colgate on Jan.11.

EFFICIENCY IS KEY
    Strong shooting and the ability to spread the ball around are both keys to Army's success. The Black Knights' 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio is second in the Patriot League, while their 15.9 assists per game and 43.9 field goal percentage rank second and four, respectively. With no one truly dominating the ball offensively, it is helping to create open looks for shooters on the outside where the Cadets are second in the conference with 9.5 made 3-pointers per game. That mark also has them tied for 25th in the NCAA.

NEXT UP
      The Black Knights remain at home for the much anticipated matchup with Navy on Saturday. This matchup is slated for 1:30 p.m. and will be part of a doubleheader with the women, who begin their contest against the Mids at 11 a.m. Both games will be played in Christl Arena and will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network. The Mids host Lehigh on Wednesday before traveling to West Point three days later.

Army West Point Athletics

Army Hosts Holy Cross on Wednesday

Players Mentioned

Jordan Fox

Tommy Funk

Mac Hoffman

Scott Mammel

Luke Morrison

Matt Wilson

Related Videos