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HAMILTON – After pulling to within three late in the game, the Colgate men's basketball team couldn't find the go-ahead bucket to surpass American in the Patriot League home opener, falling 72-63 to the Eagles Saturday afternoon.

“Their strength was inside, and they took advantage of that,” head coach Matt Langel said. “Their big guys were 15-for-22 from the field, and I thought our advantage was then going to be using our smaller lineup to hit some threes especially when we got down.

"I'm not sure we got great looks or not -- we'll have to check the film. And if we did then we have to step up and knock them in when we have those chances. That's been one of our strengths throughout the season, making three-point field goals when they are available. We weren't able to do that this afternoon.”

Colgate (6-11, 0-1) saw three players find double-digits with senior Brandon James leading the way. James grabbed 15 points, nine of those coming right in a row as he pulled the Raider to within four with less than 10 minutes to play in the game. Murphy Burnatowski (14 points) and John Brandenburg (12 points) also contributed to the Colgate scoring. Burnatowski pulled down nine rebounds throughout the game.

“You're always giving everything you have to do what you can for your team," Langel added. "But when we get it down to three after being down by as many as we were, it takes a lot of energy and a lot of good play yet very little room for error.

“They then slowed the game back down and got it inside. We couldn't come up with a couple lose ball rebounds that might have made a difference, but it is what it is. We've got to play better and I've got to do a better job of preparing us.”

The Raiders shot 37 percent from the floor, hitting 24 of their 64 shots. Colgate also was limited from behind the arc, finding the basket only five times from downtown. James and Mitch Rolls both had two of those five made threes.

American (6-10, 1-0) was led by Stephen Lumpkins, who notched 22 points in the win. Joining Lumpkins was Tony Wroblicky with 17 points, Blake Jolivette with 16 points, and Daniel Munoz with 10 points. Wroblicky earned himself a double-double, grabbing 13 boards to lead all players.

The Eagles hit 45 percent of their shots, making 25-of-55 from the floor. American had the advantage in rebounds, edging the Raiders 41-34 on the boards. The Eagles scored 30 of their 72 points in the paint and had 10 baskets off second chance opportunities.

American took the lead to begin the game with a 3-pointer by Munoz. Luke Roh quickly answered by driving to the basket to get the Raiders on the board. Colgate went down by as much as 11 through the first half but was able to claw its way back. Burnatowski hit his lone three of the day to send the Raiders into the locker room only down by six at 33-27.

Early in the second half, it seemed as though the Eagles couldn't miss in taking their largest lead of the game at 46-31. Burnatowski ended a Raiders drought and an 11-0 Eagles run with a steal and dunk to pull Colgate within 13. With help from James, who scored 12-straight points for the Raiders, Colgate started to rally a comeback. On a 12-4 run, the Raiders cut the Eagles lead down to only four at 46-42 with less than 11 minutes to play.

American answered with a run of its own, taking an 11-5 advantage to go back up by 10 (57-47) after Jolivette put away two free throws. Less than three minutes later, Colgate again went on a 9-2 run to pull to within three at 59-56 when Roh put two away at the charity stripe, giving him his fifth and sixth point.

That's the closest the Raiders would get, however, as the Eagles would seal the game and the win from the free throw line.

Colgate is back on the hardwood Wednesday, entertaining a 13-3 Bucknell team. The Bison currently lead the all-time series 58-40.

“Bucknell's as good of a team as there is in our league,” Langel said. “They've played with everybody who has been on their schedule, whether it's a national opponent or not so we'll have our hands full. We'll take a day and a half to review today's game, hopefully learn from it, and move on to prepare for a really good team on Wednesday.”