The Canisius men's basketball team held visiting Holy Cross to just 38.3 percent shooting from the field and the Golden Griffins' turned 19 Crusader turnovers into 22 points, as the Blue and Gold picked up their second-straight victory on Sunday, defeating Holy Cross 67-48 in the Koessler Athletic Center. Canisius is now 6-4 on the year, while Holy Cross slipped to 5-4 with the loss.

Canisius sophomore Zach Lewis led all players with a game-high 16 points after he went 5-for-12 from the field, 4-for-9 from 3-point land and 2-for-2 from the free-throw line. He also pulled down three rebounds in the win to go with a career-high five assists and a career best seven steals. Junior Jamal Reynolds added 10 points and six rebounds, while redshirt-freshman Adam Weir scored nine points on the power of three made 3-pointers to go with two assists. As a team, Canisius shot 43.6 percent from the floor and 44.4 percent from 3-point land, sinking eight treys on 18 shots from long-range.

As they have for most of the season, the Griffs turned smothering defense into offense on Sunday, as Canisius finished the game with a season-high 12 steals while forcing Holy Cross into a season-high 19 turnovers. Canisius led 24-18 at halftime and jumped out to a 33-23 lead just 4:52 into the second half before Holy Cross fought back and cut the Griffs' cushion to 33-31 with 13:08 left in regulation time. From there, Canisius took the game over, as the Blue and Gold out scored Holy Cross 17-1 over the game's next 3:42 to take a 50-32 advantage with 9:09 left on the clock after redshirt-freshman Jermaine Crumpton nailed a pair of free-throws for two of his eight points off the bench. In that scoring run, Crumpton had six points, Lewis had five points and senior Josiah Heath added four points for the Griffs, while the Crusaders went 0-for-3 from the field, 1-for-2 from the free-throw line and ended up turning the ball over four times, which Canisius turned into eight points.

"This is one of the best wins I've been associated with here, especially with such a young team," Canisius head coach Jim Baron said. "We were really concerned with this game coming into today. Holy Cross is a good team that has some good upperclassmen and they really pressure you from the tip. They started the year by beating Harvard, who was nationally-ranked at the time. Our defense really stepped up today and we rebounded the basketball. Getting 12 steals is phenomenal and we did a great job sharing the basketball with 15 assists on 24 makes. This was a solid win for us heading into the Christmas break."

For Holy Cross, guard Cullen Hamilton came off the bench to score a team-high 10 points in the loss, while fellow guard Justin Burrell added nine points and two assists. Canisius out rebounded Holy Cross 36-25, where the Blue and Gold turned 12 offensive rebounds into 14 second-chance points.

The Griffs will take nine days off for the Christmas holiday before returning to the floor Dec. 30, when the team hosts UMKC. Game time in the Koessler Athletic Center is set for 7 p.m.