Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
11-5, 2-3
Holy Cross
6-9, 1-4
Cox Pushes Army Past Holy Cross in Overtime
January 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball
"This was a great win for our program," Cox said following the victory. "We definitely responded today, I thought our defense was great at times, we got the stops when we needed to and were able to come away with the win."
Facing a 63-61 deficit with a little more than two minutes to play in overtime, Army (11-5, 2-3 Patriot) pulled down an offensive rebound and Kyle Wilson found Plomb at the top of the key for a three-pointer. Malachi Alexander's free throws pushed Holy Cross (6-9, 1-4 Patriot) back in front by a point at 65-64, before Kevin Ferguson put home a loose ball on Army's next possession.
One of Plomb's career-high five steals gave the ball back to Army and two quick offensive rebounds had the Black Knights in possession with less than a minute left. Wilson had the ball at the top of the key where he buried a stepback three to extend Army's lead to four. Holy Cross went the other way and Mitchell Hahn drained a straightaway three of his own to pull Holy Cross back within one with 26 seconds on the clock. Hahn had 18 points off the bench to pace the Crusaders offensively, including 16 in the second half and overtime.
Wilson was fouled and made one of his two free throw attempts to increase his total to 22 points and Army was up by a basket with 20 seconds left. Cullen Hamilton (14 points) drove right and tied the game with seven seconds left prior to Army quickly getting the ball in to Cox. Army decided against using its final timeout and let Cox push the ball ahead for the deciding bucket.
"They made the shot and we just didn't lose focus," Cox said of the final 10 seconds. "I knew how much time was left and tried to get through the jump circle, which we talk about doing as point guards in those situations. A little slice got me to the elbow and then I was able to finish. Because my teammates were running the floor I was able to find a little space and the shot went in."
"We know what we are going to run, so it doesn't benefit us to call a timeout," head coach Zach Spiker stated. "It was a little bit of a broken play and Dylan was able to go 94 feet to win the game."
Cox finished with nine points, six assists and five rebounds to help Army to a 42-36 advantage on the glass. Mac Hoffman hauled in a career-high eight boards and Plomb grabbed seven.
Army began the game by making three of its first four three-point attempts and had an 11-4 advantage early on following Plomb's second triple. The hot start continued with Hoffman's first three-pointer of the season and Army held a 14-8 edge after holding the Crusaders to a 3-for-15 effort from the field in the opening 10 minutes.
Alexander's three-point play drew the home team within three, then Christopher Morgan scored in the paint to make it 14-13. Army never gave up the lead, however, as it put in six in a row after Larry Toomey's two-handed slam off a feed from Cox.
The visitors took their seven-point lead into the halftime locker room after limiting Holy Cross to 25.9 percent shooting (7-for-27) in the period. Wilson scored Army's final six points of the half on a three-pointer and was fouled on another that sent him to the line for three shots, which he connected on to give him eight points at intermission.
Justin Burrell started the second-half scoring with a jumper for Holy Cross, but Army ripped off seven straight that included a Plomb trey, Toomey drawing a charge, Cox's layup and Plomb's steal and score. After that, the Black Knights built their lead to 12 points at the first media timeout and were up 40-27 after Hoffman made 1-of-2 at the line.
The lead shrunk to seven (44-37) after four points from Malcolm Miller and Hamilton's baseline floater. A free throw ended the run at 8-0 prior to a one-handed flush from Plomb.
Holy Cross continued to chip away at the Army lead and pulled within four (49-45) on Hahn's three-pointer at the 9:19 mark. Two minutes later the lead was down to two points on Hamilton's free throws, but Army came back with 1-of-2 by Wilson and then a deep three-pointer from the Patriot League's leading scorer to make it 55-49.
Hahn countered with a three on the other end and Holy Cross came all the way back to take the lead on a three-point play from Alexander with 3:42 remaining. An empty possession by Army and a foul called on Toomey put Hahn back on the line, where he made a pair to push Holy Cross ahead by three.
"They just started to attack the rim very hard," Cox continued. "We had some guys miss some tough shots going to the basket, they were very aggressive and were able to get back in the game."
A Crusaders' miss led to Wilson setting up Plomb for a rhythm three in transition that tied the game with less than two minutes to go.
Neither team scored after Plomb's triple and the game went into overtime deadlocked at 59.
The Black Knights continue conference play on the road when they travel to Bucknell to play the Bison on Saturday evening. Opening tip from Sojka Pavilion is set for 7 p.m. and can be seen live online on the Patriot League Network.
Game Notes: The win ended Army's two-game losing streak ... the Black Knights snapped a two-game losing streak to Holy Cross ... Army improved to 6-1 on the road this season, its best road start since the 1976-77 campaign ... Army moved to 3-0 in overtime games this season ... Wilson's 22 points moved him ahead of Bobby Sherwin and Julian Simmons and into 16th in Academy history (1,272) ... Plomb reached 20 points for the sixth time in his career ... Plomb set a new career standard with three blocked shots ... Milton Washington had a season-high three assists ... Wilson handed out a season-high four assists and scored 20 points for the 30th time in his career.
