CHICAGO, Ill. – Outgunned, out-manned, outnumbered but not out-planned, No. 16 Faulkner executed enough down the stretch to pull out a 76-72 neutral site victory over Receiving Votes Holy Cross College Tuesday afternoon.

Playing with only seven players due to precautionary COVID quarantines, Faulkner surged from behind late to topple the Saints, who had led for most of the afternoon.

"It's a different world for everybody, not just us. I'm not interested in having a built-in excuse. We've got to figure it out," Faulkner Head Coach Scott Sanderson said. "Today was a great win against a team receiving votes in the Top 25 and I expect a similar effort tomorrow."

Day one of the St. Francis New Year's Classic saw Holy Cross light it up from three in the first half to give itself a halftime advantage.

"Don't let them shoot them," Sanderson said of the halftime adjustments for his defense. "They went 7-for-13 from three in the first half in the second half they went 1-for-6. I told them, whatever you have to do, take the three away."

The Eagles did just that in the second half while also continuing to clamp down on Holy Cross's standout post presence Noel Mpie, an area of particular concern for Faulkner's game plan heading into the day.

"Derrick [Donigan] did a great job on No. 24, Noel [Mpie]," Sandesron said. "He's averaging 17 and 12 and Derrick held him to 9 and 3. Derrick did a great job of guarding him today. We spent a lot of time trying just to make it hard for him to catch the ball. Derrick and Austin [Rogers] did a good job of guarding him and being active. He only got seven shots up in 28 minutes. That was a big part of the game for us. The problem was we only had 10 fouls tonight instead of 15 with Brandon [Reeves] being out."

Holy Cross led by eight, its largest advantage of the day, with 11:19 remaining in the game. From there, Faulkner mounted an 11-2 run over the next four minutes to take the lead with a Trace Hill three. The advantage got as high as 68-64 before Holy Cross went on an 8-0 run to go ahead 72-68 with 3:46 left.

"The problem is, we have seven bodies. Garrett [Sanderson] plays 30-plus minutes. Daniel [Garmendia] lays 15 minutes. They weren't there. We were tired," Scott Sanderson said of his Eagles as they made their all-out stand. "We were down 72-68 and we stopped them the last nine possessions of the game. We got nine stops in a row to win the game."

Jordan Hamlette knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:36 remaining to cut the deficit to 72-70. C.J. Williamson connected on a layup with 2:11 left to tie the game. Donigan cleared a defensive rebound on the other end and worked the ball up the floor where Trace Hill pushed through a tough contested layup with 1:29 to play to give Faulkner the lead. With 30 seconds left, Williamson connected with a dagger of a mid-range jumper off C.J. Hines assist to ice the scoring.
Williamson paced the Eagles with 23 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Hill finished with 19 points and six rebounds. Hines notched 14 points.

"[Hill] had to step up. He knew we needed him to score with Garrett being up. He had 19 points on 13 shots with six rebounds. He didn't get a whole lot of rest and he knew he had to guard on the other end too. He played 39 minutes for us," Sanderson said. "I thought C.J. Hines, especially in the first half, played really, really well for us."
Faulkner (9-0) tips at 3 p.m. Wednesday against tournament host St. Francis (Ill.).