BASKETBALL GAME CENTRAL

THIS WEEK
Wed., Nov. 23 - vs. St. Francis (Pa.), 5 p.m. EST (Cotterell Court)
Sat., Nov. 26 – at Marist, 7 p.m. EST (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.)

The Colgate University men's basketball team welcomes St. Francis (Pa.) to Cotterell Court on Wednesday, for its 2011-12 home opener, before traveling to face Marist on Saturday. The Raiders dropped their home opener last year to Binghamton 62-60, and haven't won a home opener since the 2007-08 season when they beat Monmouth 63-60.

THE SERIES WITH ST. FRANCIS (PA)
This will be the fifth meeting between Colgate and St. Francis (Pa.) with the Red Flash leading the all-time series 3-1. St. Francis won last season 69-66 at DelGol Arena in Loretto, Pa.

THE SERIES WITH MARIST
This will be the 10th meeting between Colgate and Marist with the Red Foxes leading the all-time series 7-2. Marist won the last meeting in Poughkeepsie 63-47 during the 2006-07 season and has won the last four meetings in the series. Colgate's last win against Marist came during the 1997-98 season, 80-69 in Hamilton.

LAST TIME OUT
Colgate fell to No. 5/5 Syracuse 92-47 Saturday at the Carrier Dome. The Raiders were led by Pat Moore who scored a game-high 19 points. Moore shot 7-of-12 from the field and 5-of-9 from three point range to record a season-high 19 points, while senior Nick Pascale scored eight points and grabbed five rebounds for the Raiders. Syracuse (4-0) finished the first half with a 40-9 run and never looked back as it claimed its 46th straight win over the Raiders.

Colgate (1-2) opened the game with a 6-2 run as Mitch Rolls and Mike Venezia made back-to-back three pointers. But the Orange were able to respond with a 6-0 run to take the lead 8-6, before Moore made a lay-up to tie the game 8-8 with 16:43 remaining in the half. Syracuse tried to pull away as it built a 12-8 lead, but Rolls made another jumper to make the score 12-10 with just over 15 minutes remaining. After Brandon James missed a three-pointer that would have given Colgate the lead, Syracuse went on a 21-3 run to pull away as the Orange applied full court pressure forcing six-straight turnovers.

SCOUTING ST. FRANCIS (PA) (0-3)
The Red Flash started slow against the Bison and could not recover as St. Francis fell to Bucknell Saturday, 73-42, at the Sojka Pavilion. Scott Eatherton led the way for the Red Flash with nine points but fouled out for the second time in three games. Five Red Flash freshmen saw action and combined for 16 points but it was not enough.

Eatherton is leading the Red Flash in scoring with 11.0 points per game, while Dominque Major is averaging 8.0. Earl Brown leads the team in rebounding with 5.0 per game, while John Taylor is averaging 4.7 per game.

SCOUTING MARIST (1-4)
Marist lost a tight matchup with the defending Patriot League Champion Bucknell (2-2) by a score of 74-68. Though down for the final 30 minutes of the contest, the Red Foxes fought hard throughout and were led by a 16 point, 6 rebound and 2 block effort from sophomore Adam Kemp. For the game, Marist was outshot by Bucknell 53.2 percent (33-62) to 46.0 (23-50), but held an advantage in three point field goal percentage at 44.0 (11-25) to 33.3 (4-12).

Dorvell Carter (11.7), Devin Price (11.0) and Chavaughn Lewis (10.0) each average in double digits to lead the Red Foxes in scoring, while Kemp is averaging 7.0 points per game and 4.6 rebounds a game to lead Marist on the boards.

COACH LANGEL'S DEBUT
Colgate head coach Matt Langel won his debut with the Raiders 78-74 over Binghamton. Langel was just the fifth head coach in program history to win his first game and the first since Howard Hartman led Colgate past St. Lawrence in 1949. The win over Binghamton was also the first for Colgate in the month of November since beating Central Connecticut 58-57 in 2008. The win snapped a streak of 13 straight losses in November.

BLOCK PARTY
Junior John Brandenburg has recorded seven blocked shots over the first two games including a career-high four at Binghamton during the season opener. Brandenburg is averaging 2.3 blocks per game, which puts him on pace to finish with 90 or more this season. The last Raider to average two or more blocks per game was Adonal Foyle during the 1996-97 campaign.

1,000 POINTS AND COUNTING
Last season, senior forward Yaw Gyawu became the 28th player in school history to join the 1,000-point club. Gyawu led Colgate in scoring with 12.6 points per game and enters his final season with 1,102 points which ranks 24th overall.

VENEZIA KEEPS RAINING THREE'S  
Colgate senior Mike Venezia has made a total of 148 three-pointers in his career which ranks seventh all-time in the Colgate record books. Former teammate Kyle Roemer '10 holds the school record (267), while director of basketball operations Mark Linebaugh '04 ranks fifth with 173.