NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A wild second-half comeback by the Trojans was undone by a pair of late free throws by the Saints in a 65-64 loss on Wednesday night on the road.
Taylor trailed by twenty less than five minutes into the second half, staring down a blowout loss. A 21-2 run in which TU hit eight of ten shots from the field while forcing Holy Cross into seven-consecutive missed jumpers and a pair of turnovers.
The Saints continued to hold a slim lead until Izaiah Day hit a shot from beyond the arc for a 62-60 lead with 2:30 left on the clock. Day was outstanding defensively and made the most of his opportunities on the offensive end with eight points on four shots including a pair of buckets from three-point land.
Both squads missed an open jumper before Holy Cross (5-5, 2-1 CCAC) regained the lead on a triple with under a minute and a half left in the contest.
Taylor turned it over but held strong on defense and called a timeout to get a play in with the game on the line. Nate Paarlberg was fouled and hit both free throws for a narrow one-point lead with less than fifteen second remaining. Paarlberg hit double figures for the fifth time this season and second-straight game.
The Saints drew a foul on a shot with 3.9 second left and sank both from the charity stripe and a desperation shot would not fall for TU in the heartbreaking loss.
The Trojans looked good out of the gate, grabbing an early 7-3 lead, with Pete Combs slamming home a dunk and showing off his post moves for another early basket.
The Saints struck back and knotted the game at seven and 10 before an 11-2 by the way of three triples, gave them a seven-point advantage.
Kaden Fuhrmann scored five of his eight first-half points to help trim the deficit to one and the teams traded baskets until Holy Cross reeled off a 13-3 run to close the half and go into the locker ahead 43-31.
Anton Webb was vital to the comeback, coming off the bench for the first time this season and posting a double-double, with 10 points and 12 rebounds in just 20 minutes on the court.
Taylor (8-4, 2-2 CL) continues life on the road with a matchup against IU East (5-4, 1-0 RSC) on Tuesday, December 17, with tip-off set for 6:00 pm.
