Holy Cross defies odds in stunning run to Patriot League title

Remember when Austin Peay won the Ohio Valley Conference tournament a few days ago and you thought it would be the biggest underdog to reach the NCAA tournament this season?

Jeez, were you wrong.

In a year in which Yale finally broke its 54-year-old streak of March Madness misses and only one top-seeded team has won a conference title so far, the strangest outcome yet came Wednesday night when ninth-seeded Holy Cross upset Lehigh 59-56 to win the Patriot League title and the right to play on.

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Coach Bill Carmody has finally reached the promised land once again as a college basketball head coach. He wasn’t able to get Northwestern to the big dance in 13 seasons as coach there after previously guiding Princeton to the NCAA tournament twice, but now he’s dancing again in his first season coaching the Crusaders.

In a postgame television interview with ESPN, even Carmody called his team’s achievement ‘improbable.’ The Crusaders won four consecutive road games in the tournament after going 0-9 on the road in conference play during the regular season. According to STATS LLC, Holy Cross is the 20th team to earn a spot in the NCAA tournament with a losing record since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985.

Holy Cross limped into the conference tournament on a five game losing streak before something changed to stoke a fire in the Crusaders.

Holy Cross pounced on its opportunity Wednesday and relentlessly went after the title.

With less than five minutes to play in the first half, Holy Cross led 20-6 and its 1-3-1 defense had Lehigh perplexed and struggling to get the ball to its best player, center Tim Kempton. Lehigh shot 6-for-23 in the first half and committed nine turnovers and never was able to force a faster tempo at which it likes to play.

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Malachi Alexander was the best player on the court in the title game. He scored 26 points for Holy Cross on seven of 10 shooting, including going 6-for-7 behind the 3-point line. Senior Eric Green was the only other Holy Cross player to score in double figures. He finished with 13.

Of course, Lehigh made a run and cut the lead to one point at 55-54 with 1 minute, 21 seconds remaining, but it couldn’t close the comeback. The Mountain Hawks missed four 3-point shots in the final 20 seconds and watched right along with the rest of the nation in stunned disbelief as Holy Cross players and coaches celebrated a hard-earned championship.

Before the Patriot League tournament started, kenpom.com gave Holy Cross a 2000-to-1 chance of winning the title or 0.05 percent. People love Cinderella stories every year in March and now those folks are happy. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you Holy Cross, the most unlikely entry in the NCAA tournament field in a season when predictability has been turned on its head.

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[Kyle Ringo is the assistant editor of The Dagger on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KyleRingo