The American University women's basketball team dropped its second straight Patriot League contest, falling at Holy Cross, 73-63, on Saturday afternoon. Stephanie Anya collected her 500th rebound in the loss, becoming the 16th player in American history to reach the mark.

Alexis Dobbs and Jen Dumiak led the Eagles with 19 and 17 points, respectively, with each hitting three three-pointers. Anya finished the day with a team-high 12 boards, including eight offensive rebounds, to put her career total at 507. Dobbs notched six assists while Anya, Dobbs and Dumiak collected two steals apiece. 

"There are a couple of positives we can take away from today's game in that we executed pretty well offensively and didn't turn it over," said Head Coach Matt Corkery. "But if you want to win games you have to defend. We didn't defend."

American (13-11, 6-4) tallied the first four points of the afternoon before the Crusaders went on a 10-0 run to take the lead for good. Sarah Kiely ended the run after a dish from Dumiak to cut the score to 10-6 at the 13:32 mark. Holy Cross took a 23-14 lead after a triple from Alex Smith. After an American timeout the Eagles answered with a 8-0 run to make it a one-point game and Dumiak tied it at 27 with a trey with 4:53 remaining. Holy Cross went back up after a 7-0 run and another triple from Smith sent the Crusaders into the break with the 37-29 advantage. 

Holy Cross (13-12, 5-5) outshot the Eagles 61.5 to 36.8 percent from the floor and 50.0 to 11.1 percent from beyond the arc in the first half.

Dobbs hit back-to-back three-pointers to open the scoring in the second half for the Eagles, and added another bucket on the next possession to cut American's deficit to 43-37 with 15:44 to play. Back-to-back jumpers from Dumiak and Dobbs made it a four-point game, and another Dumiak trey cut Holy Cross's lead to 49-44 with 11:48 to go.

The Eagles tried to mount a comeback, but the Crusaders continued to answer shot-for-shot. American came within seven with 4:43 remaining before Holy Cross used a 11-2 run to go up 73-57 with 1:31 left to play. The Eagles closed out the game on a 6-0 run but it was not enough as Holy Cross went on to win, 73-63. 

Four players finished in double-figures for the Crusaders led by Smith's 20-point effort. Christine Ganser and Emily Parker led the team with six rebounds apiece. Brisje Malone tallied eight assists. Holy Cross held a 62.7 to 36.6 advantage in field goal percentage and hit eight three-pointers compared to six for American.

The Eagles are back in Bender Arena on Wednesday, February 20 at 7 p.m. to host defending Patriot League Champion Navy. The game will be broadcast live on Patriot League All*Access.