HAMILTON, N.Y. - The Colgate Raiders (6-4) will be looking for a sweep of their two-game California trip, when they meet Loyola of Marymount on Friday night at the Gersten Pavilion in Los Angeles. Tip-off is 10:05 EST.
The Raiders opened their holiday trip with a come-from-behind 73-71 win over Long Beach State out of the Big West Conference. It was the 49ers first loss ever against a Patriot League team. Sophomore guard Alvin Reed was Colgates leading scorer with 14 points, including four free throws in the final 16 seconds to seal the victory. Freshman Kendall Chones had a career-high 12 points, while Mark Linebaugh tallied 11 and sophomore Jon Foss scored a career-high 10. Josh Humphrey was the leading rebounder with six, and Andrew Zidar had a career-high six assists.
Colgate was 5-2 in the month of December with wins over Albany (68-65), New Hampshire (70-66), Harvard (78-60), Hobart (97-67) and Long Beach. They lost to Buffalo (72-49) and defending national champion Syracuse (101-63).
Colgate has three players in double figures led by senior forward Howard Blue with 16.3 points per game. Blue, who has been in double figures in eight games, is the leading scorer in the Patriot League and fourth leading rebounder (5.2). Also in double-digits are Linebaugh (14.2) and Reed (12.0). Linebaugh is fourth in the Patriot League in scoring and Reed is 10th.
Junior center Andrew Zidar is the leading rebounder in the Patriot League with 6.3 caroms per outing and is averaging 9.3 points per game.
Linebaugh leads the team in assists with 34, followed by Reed with 30 and Zidar with 26. Blue is tops in steals with 15, while Reed has 14.
Colgate leads the Patriot League in 3-point field goal percentage (.355) and free throw percentage (.803). Reed is the top free throw shooter in the Patriot League making .943 percent of his shots (33-of-35).
OTHER COLGATE NOTES: Blue has scored 1,049 career points and grabbed 533 rebounds, while Linebaugh has scored 1,161 points and grabbed 298 rebounds ... Zidar has a team high three double-doubles (vs. Cornell, Harvard and Hobart). He has been Colgates leading rebounder in five games.
