First reactions from the Canisius Golden Griffins non-conference win over the Holy Cross Crusaders.
By Paul Gotham
Forcing the issue
The Canisius defense forced 19 turnovers while allowing nine assists. This after Thursday night’s victory over Stony Brook where the Seawolves committed 13 turnovers with just five assists. In five of six Canisius wins this season the Griffs have forced more turnovers than the opponents have assists. Only St. Peter’s (15 assists/9 turnovers) turned the tables. Well, not exactly. The Griffs beat the Peacocks 60-57. In a loss to Cornell, the Blue and Gold forced 23 turnovers to eight assists.
Hedging hard
Contributing to the advantage in the turnover column is the Griffs’ ball-screen defense. Canisius forwards hedge hard and don’t allow ballhandlers to turn the corner and get in the paint. The remaining defenders rotate hard and take away the second pass. Opposing teams are forced to play faster than they want. More on this in a later column.
A little bit of everything
Canisius got the better of Holy Cross across the board: points in the paint (24-18), points off turnovers (22-7), second-chance points (14-5), fast break points (16-11) and bench points (28-20). The Griffs also hit 11 of 12 free throws and are 30 of 33 at the stripe over the last two games.
“Billy who?”
When asked after the Stony Brook game about finding someone to step up now that his son, Billy, is gone, Baron joked: Billy who?” For the second game in a row, Zach Lewis appears to be that player. The sophomore guard came through when the Griffs needed him. Lewis drilled a pair of 3-pointers late in Thursday’s game before tallying four more in overtime. Sunday, with Canisius leading by two and 13:00 remaining, the Griffs scored 11 straight. Lewis netted five in the decisive run and handed out a pair of assists.
Play of the game
The sequence where Lewis directly contributed nine straight changed the game. The sophomore guard fed Jermaine Crumpton with an alley oop in transition for a layup. He followed with a pullup three. At the other end, he deflected a pass, grabbed the loose ball and went the length of the floor for two. He capped the run with a steal and another feed to Crumpton for the deuce.
Home sweet home
The Griffs are 3-0 on the year at the Koessler Athletic Center. The Blue and Gold return to play UMKC on December 30th. Coach Baron took the microphone at the end of the game to thank everyone in attendance for their support.
RPI helper?
Holy Cross opened the season with a win over then #25 Harvard (of course the Crimson looked pale in a throttling at the hands of Virginia on Sunday). The Crusaders have also beaten Brown (who beat Providence) and New Jersey Tech (who beat Michigan). This was the Griffs’ second win over a Patriot League team this season. The other? Lehigh, who won at Arizona State last night.
Looking ahead
Holy Cross (5-4) gets little rest. They travel to Pittsburgh for a game on Tuesday. After playing UMKC next week, Canisius (6-4/2-0) returns to MAAC play on January second when Monmouth visits the KAC. A 7 p.m. tipoff is scheduled.
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