'Saders left out in cold; American rallies from 11 down for rare road win.

• Author: Doyle, Bill
• Position: Sports

Byline: Bill Doyle

WORCESTER -- Monday night was "White Out Night'' at the Hart Center and believe it or not, it had nothing to do with the whiteout conditions caused by the foot of snow that fell on the city.

Holy Cross encouraged fans to wear white to show their school spirit for the Purple and White during the national broadcast of the game on the CBS Sports Network. Most of the season-low 516 fans in attendance were students and a fair amount of them did wear white.

But their spirit didn't help the Crusaders dig a victory out of the snow drifts. HC led by as many as 11 points in the first half, but American rallied for a 57-50 victory.

The Eagles sank five 3-pointers early in the second half to get close and outscored HC, 13-5, over the final 6:01 to beat the Crusaders for the sixth time in a row and the second time this season.

HC fell to 8-12 overall and 3-7 in the Patriot League. American snapped its three-game losing streak and improved to 12-10 overall and 5-5 in the league by earning only its second league road win.

After winning four of its first five games this season, HC has captured only four of its last 15.

"We're going to continue to fight,'' HC coach Milan Brown said. "I'll say this adversity is going to do nothing, but make us stronger. We're not going to look for any pity party. We're going to show up and compete and we still believe in us and our team and that we can have some good things happen for us.''

HC led for much of Monday's game, but suffered its fifth loss by seven or fewer points.

"You've got to give American credit,'' Brown said. "They made a few more plays down the stretch. We call them winning plays and we had some opportunities that we didn't necessarily capitalize on and they made a couple of big shots.''

In the second half, American shot 63.6 percent (14-22) and outscored HC, 39-27, after shooting just 28.6 percent (6-21) in the first half and falling behind 23-18.

HC shot even better than American in the second half (64.7 percent, 11 of 17), but couldn't overcome the visitors' huge advantage in 3-pointers. American made 10 of its first 14 shots beyond the arc and finished 10 of 17. HC finished just 3 of 11.

Marko Vasic made two consecutive layups on the break after HC turnovers to put American ahead for good, 48-45, with 5:37 left. The Eagles sank five of six free throws in the final 25.4 seconds before Jesse Reed ended the scoring with a dunk.

Senior Malcolm Miller led HC with 19 points...