Holy Cross Defeats Navy, 67-53, In Patriot League Women's Basketball Quarterfinals

March 8, 2008

WEST POINT, N.Y.- Second-seeded Holy Cross (18-12) secured a place in the Patriot League Women's Basketball Tournament semifinal round by defeating #7 seed Navy (7-23), 67-53, in Saturday's Patriot League Women's Basketball Quartefinals at Army's Christl Arena. Holy Cross improves to 36-6 all-time in Patriot League tournament games and advances to the semifinal round of the Patriot League Tournament for the 16th time in 17 years.

"First of all, I'd like to congratulate Holy Cross. They played a very good game, especially in the second half," said Navy head coach Tom Marryott. "They knew what they wanted to do. They wanted to go inside, and they established the tone of the game at the start of the second half. They deserve a lot of credit. We got ourselves in some early foul trouble, obviously with Cassie (Consedine) that hurt us a little bit in the first half. But I was very proud with how we kept hanging in there. It seemed like the chips were going against us pretty much the entire second half, but it was nice to see us really battle when the lead ballooned up a little to where it was tough to get back into it. We never stopped going after them. I think it showed a great deal of character."

"It was a good win for us," said Holy Cross head coach Bill Gibbons. "We played terrific in the second half. I knew with Tom Marryott resigning they were going to play hard and play their fannies off for him. As much as I told the girls that, I don't think they knew the importance of a guy resigning that the girls really liked. I knew they'd play very hard. I thought they were scrappy. They had played Army really well here. I saw that game. I just wanted to survive and advance. Luckily in the second half, we did a great job."

The Mids trailed just 28-24 at the half despite Consedine picking up three first half fouls. She picked up her first two fouls within 46 seconds of each other early in the first half and picked up her third foul with 4:47 left in the half and Navy trailing by just two points at 21-19.

Holy Cross, however, came out of the locker room to start the second half on fire, scoring 12 of the first 14 points to jump out to a 38-26 lead and the Crusaders never led by less than 10 points the rest of the game.

"Holy Cross had some success at the end of the first half going inside, so they went right at it (to start the second half). They established a tone offensively. It was probably four straight possessions where they got a basket or a great look. It absolutely set the tone," said Marryott. "Holy Cross looked like a team that's won a championship. They came out and looked like a team that had been here before."

Kathy Gruzynski scored half of her team-high 16 points in the first 3:29 of the second half to key the Crusaders run. Sophomore Briana McFadden and classmate Bethany O'Dell chipped in with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Gruzinski and freshman Elizabeth Campbell each pulled down a team-high five rebounds. Senior guard Laura Aloisi dished out seven assists.

Navy freshman center and Patriot League Rookie of the Year Cassie Consedine paced all players with 18 points to go with three blocks and five rebounds. Classmate Angela Myers pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.