Jan. 20, 2004
On March 14, 2003, at the Hart Center in Worcester, Mass., Holy Cross outdueled American by a 72-64 margin for the Crusaders' third-straight Patriot League Men's Basketball Championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It was HC's second-straight title-game victory against the Eagles.
Sunday (1/25), the Crusaders and Eagles will again meet at HC's home court (3 p.m.) in the first of two regular-season contests. It was be the first PL men's basketball game, and just the second PL regular-season event, broadcast by College Sports Television (CSTV).
Previous CSTV telecasts involving the Patriot League included the 2003 Fordham at Lehigh football game and the 2003 NCAA Men's Lacrosse Tournament first-round match pitting PL champion Army at #1-ranked Johns Hopkins.
Carter Blackburn will call the play-by-play for the game while former coach Bob Valvano will be the analyst.
Holy Cross (7-9, 1-2 PL) was the top-ranked team in the pre-season poll of PL coaches and SIDs while American (8-9, 2-1 PL) was grouped in a close vote with Colgate and Lafayette to be HC's top challenger. Both teams played several national-caliber teams during the non-League season and were hovering around the .500 mark entering League play.
American enters the first of four "travel partner" League weekends coming off a 63-58 loss at home to Lehigh (10-6, 3-0 PL), which shares the top spot in the League standings with Lafayette (12-4, 3-0 PL). The third-place Eagles will play at Colgate (9-7, 1-2 PL) Friday night before Sunday's clash at Holy Cross.
The Crusaders will also have one shot at erasing the memory of an overtime loss at home before facing AU. HC, which fell to Lafayette Saturday, 60-58, will host Navy (3-13, 0-3 PL) Friday night in a League battle. The Midshipmen are the only other team to have played in the PL title game in the last three years, falling at Holy Cross in the 2001 final, 68-64 in overtime.
The key matchup will pit two of the premiere ballhandlers in Patriot League history in American senior Andres Rodriguez (San Juan, P.R.) and Holy Cross senior Jave Meade (Queensbridge, N.Y.).
Rodriguez leads the PL and is among the NCAA leaders in assists per game (8.06). He broke the League record with an amazing 19 helpers Jan. 14 in a win at Navy and currently ranks ninth in PL history with 377 assists in just 68 games. No other player in the Top 25 in PL history played less than 83 games. He also contributes 10.1 points and ranks second in the PL in steals (2.41).
He supports Fr. G Andre Ingram (Richmond, Va.) and Sr. F Jernavis Draughn (Triangle, Va.), the top two scorers on the team. Ingram is fifth in the PL with a 14.4 scoring average while Draughn is eighth in scoring (12.6) and leads the PL in rebounding (6.9).
Meade has been a standout on three-straight PL championship teams, starting the past two seasons. He is tied for second in the PL this season, averaging 5.00 assists per outing, and is third in steals (2.06). He enters the travel-partner weekend needing eight assists to break the League record of 531, set in 1997 by Navy's Brian Walker. Meade also ranks third in PL career steals with 219, trailing 1993 Bucknell grad Mike Bright (234) and Walker (223). Meade is also third on the team in scoring with an 8.1 average.
Leading the HC offense are Soph. G Kevin Hamilton (Queens Village, N.Y.), Jr. C Nate Lufkin (Austin, Texas) and Jr. F John Hurley (South Boston, Mass.). In HC's balanced scheme, Hamilton, Lufkin and Hurley are all averaging between nine-and-10 points and between five-and-six rebounds per outing.