HAMILTON, N.Y. (2/4/06) - Kevin Bettencourt scored 17 points to rally Bucknell to a 68-59 win over Colgate Saturday in a Patriot League game at Cotterell Court.
Bucknell (18-3, PL 9-0) has won nine straight league games en route to the best start in school history. The first-place Bison have also won five straight on the road and 13 straight Patriot League foes.
Colgate (8-14, PL 2-6) was paced in scoring by Kyle Roemer with 19 points, while Todd Checovich added a career-high 13 points.
Other Bucknell players in double figures were Charles Lee with 13 points, Chris McNaughton with 12 and Abe Badmus with 10.
Colgate jumped out to a 16-5 lead on the Bison behind three 3-pointers by Dan Gentile and one by Roemer. Later in the first half, the Raiders increased their lead to 12 points, 26-14, when Roemer hit his second 3-pointer with 2:15 left.
Bettencourt scored the next four points before Roemer hit a pair of free throws to give Colgate a 28-20 halftime lead.
In the second half, Colgate scored the first four points on a layup by Marc Daniels and two technical free throws by Roemer. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they went ice-cold as Bucknell put together a 20-4 run to open a 40-36 lead with 12:03 left.
With Bucknell leading 53-49, Colgate missed a pair of free throws that would have cut the Bison lead to two points with 4:49 remaining. Bettencourt immediately went down the court and hit a 3-point and Lee added another 3-pointer to put Bucknell ahead 59-49.
The two teams tied in the rebounding department 28-28. Colgate was led by Kyle Chones with five, while Lee paced Bucknell with six.
After shooting 45.5 percent in the first half, Colgate managed only 33 percent (7-of-21) in the final 20 minutes. Bucknell, meanwhile, shot 32 percent in the opening half, but came back with a blistering 67 percent in the second half.
