HAMILTON, N.Y. (2/7/09) – Alex Woodhouse (Alexandria, VA) had nine points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots as Colgate held off Army for a 55-53 Patriot League win Saturday afternoon at Cotterell Court.
Colgate improves to 8-14 overall and 4-5 in league play with its second straight win, while Army drops to 7-15 overall and 3-5 in the league. It was Colgate's fifth straight home victory over the Cadets.
The Raiders had two players in double figures led by Yaw Gyawu (Lilburn, GA) with 12 points and Mike Venezia (Westfield, NJ) with 10. Josh Miller led Army with 18 points followed by Cleveland Richard with 12.
The game came down to the final seconds, and wasn't decided until Woodhouse blocked a shot by Miller with seven seconds left. Willie Morse (State College, PA)grabbed the rebound off the blocked shot for the Raiders, and was fouled by Julian Simmons with 1.3 seconds left. Morse missed the free throw, and Richard's full-court attempt fell short at the buzzer.
Colgate controlled the entire first half while shooting 61 percent from the field, while Army managed only 28 percent. The Raiders jumped out to an 18-8 lead, before extending the advantage to 16 points, 31-15, with 16 seconds remaining.
Trailing by 14 points at halftime, Army opened the second half with a 12-5 run to cut Colgate's lead down to seven points. Colgate responded with its own run as the Raiders went ahead 43-33 on baskets by Ben Jonson (Dallas, TX) and Gyawu.
Colgate was enjoying an 11-point lead, 51-40, with 2:59 remaining, before Army made things interesting. The Cadets forced three straight Colgate turnovers which they converted into two 3-pointers by Richard and one by Miller to cut the deficit to two points with 2:10 left.
Woodhouse made two free throws with 1:45 remaining to put Colgate back in front, 53-49, but Army's Jeremy Hence scored to make it a two-point game again. Woodhouse nailed two more free throws with 58 seconds remaining, and Army came back again with a bucket by Simmons. After Morse missed the front end of a one-and-one with 12.8 seconds left, Woodhouse came up with the big block to seal Colgate's victory.
Colgate shot 54 percent from the field, while Army finished at 40 percent. The Raiders were 6-of-11 from 3-point range, and edged the Cadets on the boards, 29-28.
Colgate will conclude its four-game home stand on Wednesday night playing host to Lafayette College.
(Boxscore)
