Box Score
(Worcester, MA) – San Francisco played its final non-conference game and dropped a tough 88-83 decision at Holy Cross Thursday night at the Hart Center in a Jesuit Spotlight contest. The Dons (9-4) see their four-game winning streak snapped as the Crusaders (5-7) win their third straight in the series against San Francisco.
Senior guard Rashad Green scored a game-high 23 points, matching his career-high and added seven rebounds in front of friends and family. Senior forward Angelo Caloiaro chipped in 16 points – all coming in the second half, while junior forward Perris Blackwell added 14 points and five rebounds. Green and Blackwell both fouled out of the contest.
Sophomore guard Dominique O'Connor also reached double-digits with 10 points, while sophomore guard Cody Doolin had eight.
It was a rugged contest with a total of 50 fouls whistled. A season-high 29 personals were called on the Dons, several coming in the closing seconds as USF was trailing and forced to foul.
"It's really disappointing," USF head coach Rex Walters said. "Bottom line is allowing them to shoot 58 percent from the floor means we didn't do the job defensively. We forced them into a ton of turnovers, but they made too many shots. Our effort was good, but our execution wasn't."
The Crusaders shot .857 (30-35) from the charity stripe for the contest and converted on .581 (25-43) from the floor, .444 (8-18) from long distance. USF countered with a .441 (30-68) rate from the field and went .381 (8-21) from 3-point range.
San Francisco roared back from a 44-33 deficit using a 18-5 run to take a 51-49 lead on a pair of free throws by freshman forward Khalil Murphy with 10:19 remaining in regulation. USF's last lead came at 61-60 on a free throw by sophomore guard Cody Doolin with 6:22 remaining.
Holy Cross fended off several furious Dons rallies in the final five minutes. USF cut the deficit to three points four times in the final minute, but Holy Cross made 13 consecutive free throws to seal the win.
Remarkably, USF outscored Holy Cross 42-30 in the paint, but the Crusaders out-rebounded the Dons 37-24 and swatted 10 shots. Holy Cross committed a whopping 28 turnovers and the Dons scored 31 points off those miscues. USF committed 15 turnovers against 16 assists.
San Francisco struggled shooting the basketball in the opening period, converting on .400 (10-25), while Holy Cross connected at a .519 (14-27) rate and made half of its 10 3-point attempts. The Crusaders reserves scored 19 points in the opening half, while USF reserves managed just four points. Blackwell and Green led the Dons with eight points apiece.
San Francisco opens the West Coast Conference portion of the schedule Thursday, December 29 at Pepperdine. Tip-off against the Waves is set for 7:00 PM at Firestone Fieldhouse in a game carried live on USFDons.com via Stretch Internet.
