Crusaders again turn it around late; Evans sizzles in 2nd half, sparks HC past Navy.

Byline: Jennifer Toland

WORCESTER - R.J. Evans is a player who responds when challenged, Ralph Willard said, so that's exactly what the Holy Cross coach did to his star freshman during halftime of last night's game against Navy.

Evans, HC's top scorer and the leading candidate for Patriot League Rookie of the Year honors, logged 15 minutes in the first half and had one rebound and one assist to show for it - not a stat line Willard or Evans was happy about.

"Coach was getting on us," Evans said. "I was like, `We've got to change this right now.'"

Evans scored 17 second-half points on 8-of-11 shooting to lead the Crusaders to a big 74-69 win over the Midshipmen before 2,077 at the Hart Center.

Holy Cross trailed by as many as 12 points with 17:34 to play, but a basket by Evans started HC on a 14-3 run that got the Crusaders back in the game.

Willard issued the challenge to Evans. Senior Lawrence Dixon added some encouragement.

"I was getting frustrated in the first half, and I wasn't playing hard, and Lawrence told me to just keep playing, just keep going and everything will work out," Evans said. "He was right."

It was a nice bounce-back win for Holy Cross (14-12, 9-2) after Saturday's loss to Bucknell. The Crusaders avenged an earlier setback to Navy (17-9, 6-5) and remained one game behind first-place American in the PL standings. HC plays at American on Saturday.

"This is kind of a defining moment so far in our season," senior Alex Vander Baan said. "We were coming off a tough loss where we didn't come ready to play mentally or physically. It was a gut check."

Navy had won the previous three meetings against HC.

The Crusaders did not play well in the first half. The Mids jumped to a 14-5 lead and - led by senior forward Adam Teague, who was 3 of 3 from 3-point territory - shot 54 percent from the field. Holy Cross committed 12 first-half turnovers, five by senior Colin Cunningham.

Navy outscored HC, 10-3, to start the second half and took a 48-36 lead on Kaleo Kina's jumper.

Senior Pat Doherty and junior Adam May came off the bench to spark HC in the second half, and Vander Baan was tremendous down the stretch.

During a critical 2-1/2-minute span, he buried a pair of 3-pointers, made a steal and went flying to the floor as he corralled a rebound under the Navy basket. His first 3 tied the score at 61-61 with 8:01 left. His steal led to an Evans layup that put HC up, 63-61, and his second 3 made it 66-63 with 5:47 to play.

"For him to have the opportunity to perform like that in a crucial situation," Willard said, "I'm so happy for him that he was able to do it."

Holy Cross went ahead by five on an Evans jumper with 3:20 left, but Kina and junior guard Chris Harris combined for four free throws to make it a one-point game with 1:46 to play.

After sophomore Andrew Keister rebounded a Romeo Garcia miss, Vander Baan sank a pair of free throws. Cunningham deflected a Garcia inbounds pass to sophomore Andrew Beinert, who made two free throws with 16 seconds left.

Holy Cross held the Mids to 29 percent shooting in the second half, while making 61 percent of its shots.

"The second half was a lot of fun," Vander Baan said.

Teague and Harris each scored 17 points, while Kina added 16.

NAME: COLLEGE OF THE HOLY CROSS 

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Holy Cross' Adam May during the second quarter of his team's win over Navy. (2) Holy Cross' Eric Meister, left, tries to work his way around Navy's Mark Veazey during the second quarter at the Hart Center.

PHOTOG: ALEX WITKOWICZ