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January 26, 2003

Boxscore

Glenn Stokes scored 18 points to help AU defeat Holy Cross for the first time.

American Defeats Holy Cross by 23, 72-49
Miles and Stokes each net 18 points

WASHINGTON - Glenn Stokes (Silver Spring, Md./Albert Einstein) and Steve Miles (Alexandria, Va./Hayfield) combined for 36 points to help American University defeat Holy Cross by 23 points, 72-49. It was the first time AU has defeated the Crusaders, who were 4-0 versus American lifetime and 4-0 in Patriot League play coming into today’s contest.

American got off to a slow start, trailing by as many as seven points early in the game. However, Stokes began to click and finished the half with nine points, while Jernavis Draughn (Triangle, Va./Potomac Senior) picked up seven points and two steals to help AU begin to take charge midway through the half. The Eagles eventually took a 21-18 lead and then extended it to nine points (27-18) after they held Holy Cross scoreless for over four minutes (7:52-3:45) of the first half. AU had a chance to finish the half up nine points, but missed a shot and Holy Cross scored at the buzzer to close the gap to five, 31-26.

“I told everyone in the hallway to forget about that last basket,” said Stokes. “Get it out of our minds. We played a good first half and we needed to focus on playing the same way in the second half."

American started the second half on fire and quickly built the lead from five points to 19 points just five minutes into the half. Stokes accounted for nine of the first 16 points AU scored to open the second half. American eventually built a 25-point cushion and over the last seven minutes of the game, Holy Cross could not get any closer than 17 points, 60-43.

Jernavis Draughn had 13 points including this dunk in AU's win over Holy Cross.

“ We knew how important this weekend was coming in,” said American head coach Jeff Jones. “It was going to tell us what kind of team we could be the rest of the season. Now, we have to come out on Tuesday, ready to practice as well as we did this past week and be focused on next weekend.”

Holy Cross was led by Tim Szatko, who scored 11 points and grabbed four rebounds in 23 minutes of action. Patrick Whearty and Jave Meade each had 10 points.
It was only the second time this season four Eagles scored in double-figures (Elon was the other). The other two (aside from Stokes and Miles) in double figures were Draughn, who had 13 points and a season-high four steals and Matej Cresnik (Velenje, Slovenia/University of Ljubljana), who notched 11 points and seven rebounds.

Despite a significant size disadvantage, American won the battle of the boards by ten, 38-28, and in the second half outscored Holy Cross in the paint by 16, 24-8.
American had only played Holy Cross once before joining the Patriot League and had lost to them all three times they played last season, including the Patriot League Championship game held at Bender Arena.

American (8-10/3-2) will next play at Lafayette on January 31, 2003. The game is at 7:30 p.m.