ITHACA, N.Y. (12/2/07) – After being held scoreless in the first half, junior Kyle Roemer (Martinez, CA) tallied a game-high 18 points to lead Colgate to a 76-73 come-from-behind win over Cornell Saturday night at Newman Arena.

 

Colgate (5-3) snaps a three-game losing streak, while handing Cornell (4-2) its first home loss of the season in five outings.  The Raiders had lost two straight against the Big Red.

 

Other Colgate players in double figures were Daniel Waddy (Tucson, AZ) with 16 points, including 9-of-10 from the foul line in the closing minutes, and Willie Morse (State College, PA) with 11 points.

 

Cornell had four players in double figures led by Ryan Wittman with 17, followed by Alex Tyler with 16, Collin Robinson with 14 and Louis Dale with 10.

 

Colgate’s strong defensive effort was supported by standout rebounding that saw the Raiders out-rebound the home team, 36-25.  The Big Red had only five offensive rebounds. Kendall Chones (Cleveland, OH) was Colgate’s top rebounder with seven and he added seven points to his performance.  Roemer finished with six rebounds and Ben Jonson (Dallas, TX) had four.

 

Trailing by one point at halftime, Colgate fell behind by as many as eight points with 9:40 left in the game, 49-41.  The Raiders, however, put together a nine-point run to take a 50-49 lead with 6:58 left.  The crucial run saw Roemer with four points, Jonson with three and Tim Pounds (Dudley, NC) with a steal and layup for the go-ahead basket.

 

The Big Red would manage to tie the contest 53-53 on Wittman’s 3-pointer but Roemer tallied five straight points to give the Raiders the lead for good.  Colgate led by as many as eight points in the final minutes, and made 14-of-16 free throws down the stretch.

 

In the first half, Cornell held an 8-7 lead over the Raiders with 14:10 remaining.  The Big Red extended their advantage to 17-7 with nine straight points led by Tyler with a pair of baskets, Dale’s 3-pointer and Geoff Reeves’ dunk.  Kyle Chones (Cleveland, OH) had a tip-in basket and Waddy made one free throw before Cornell’s Adam Gore nailed a 3-pointer to put the Big Red back in front by 10 points.

 

Colgate answered the challenge with 11 straight points to take its first lead of the game, 21-20, with 4:30 left.  Morse had two 3-pointers including the go-ahead basket, and Kyle Chones hit a 3-pointer and Jonson had a short jumper.

 

Baskets by Tyler and Jason Battle put the Big Red back in front by three points, 24-21, but Morse’s third 3-pointer of the first half tied the contest in the closing minutes of the opening half.  Robinson hit a 3-pointer for Cornell, before Waddy closed out the first half scoring with a pair of free throws, leaving Colgate trailing 27-26 at halftime.

 

Colgate played the major portion of the first half without Roemer, who picked up his third foul with over seven minutes left.

 

Colgate shot 49 percent from the field, including 59 percent in the second half.  They finished 23-of-30 from the charity stripe.

 

The Raiders are back in action on Wednesday night when they travel to Binghamton.