Four starters return from last season’s third place squad and the Crusaders have been picked to finish first in the league this season. Among the four returning starters R.J Evans and Andrew Keister were named to the preseason all-league team.
The Crusaders lost head coach Ralph Willard after the season and Sean Kearney got his first head coaching gig in the process. The former Notre Dame assistant comes in with high expectations of his experienced Crusader squad.
Evans is a 6’3” sophomore guard who was named the league’s rookie of the year last season after putting up better than 13 points and five rebounds a game. Evans has started the season where he left off averaging 14 points and better than five rebounds through the Crusaders first two contests. He has struggled shooting the ball, hitting just 25% of his three-point attempts and just over 35% from the field.
The 6’9” Keister is a junior forward with some bulk. He’s started the season strong with averages of 16 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, including a double double at St. Josephs.
Sophomore guard Devin Brown has come off the bench the first two games of the season and has posted better than 14 points a game while leading the squad in three-point shooting.
St. John’s transfer Mike Cavataio has jumped into the starting lineup for Holy Cross putting in ten points a game and leading the club in assists.
Much like last season, Holy Cross has struggled shooting the ball in the early going this year. They’ve hit just over 26% of their three-point attempts and have allowed opponent’s to hit at a 37% clip. The Crusaders have been outrebounding opponents by nearly nine a game. They’ve done a decent job protecting the ball with just 13 turnovers a contest and nearly 17 assists a game.
Holy Cross is not a typical undersized Patriot League team. They have some bruisers in the frontcourt with Keister, senior center Eric Meister and senior forward Adam May. Along with a young and talented backcourt Holy Cross will give the Ramblers all they can handle Friday night. It will be a good early season test for the Ramblers against a quality opponent on the road.
