Box Score
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Colgate men's basketball team drained 17 3-pointers, 11 of which came in the first half alone, to win big against Conference USA foe Tulane, 98-86 here on Tuesday night.
"We made all the shots we were going to make for this day," Colgate head coach
Matt Langel said. "We are grateful that it's Thanksgiving and we are thankful for our offense obviously in this game.
Damon Sherman-Newsome was terrific. He didn't settle for jump shots when a lot of jump shots were falling but he did step up and make a few when we needed it. He got to the basket and made some tough shots. He also had three assists with no turnovers. We finished with 22 assists and it was just a great team effort in a difficult environment."
The 17 made 3-pointers is believed to be a program record for most in a game. Also with the victory, the Raiders reach their first three-game winning streak since taking four-straight home games from Jan. 2-9, 2010.
Colgate (3-2) scored a season-high 98 points, the most since a 101-85 win over Hobart during the 2004-05 season and the most against a Division I opponent since a 99-87 victory at Long Island to start the 2001-02 season.
Damon Sherman-Newsome led the way with a career-high 25 points. He went 8-for-9 from the floor, 3-for-4 from behind the arc, and 6-for-7 from the charity stripe. Sherman-Newsome was not the only Raider to find double-figures as four other Colgate players reached the height.
Murphy Burnatowski and
Pat Moore were both next with 17 points. Burnatowski shot 6-of-13 from the floor while Moore matched his season-high five 3-pointers.
Junior
Ethan Jacobs also saw five go in from long range as he finished the night with 15 points.
Austin Tillotson closed out the Raiders in double digits with 12 after going 6-of-8 from the floor.
Clayton Graham pulled down a team-high six boards while
Luke Roh handed out five assists.
Colgate shot an impressive 67 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and that didn't let up in the second half as the Raiders finished the game making 34 of their 52 attempts for 65 percent shooting on the night. That feat marks Colgate's highest shooting percentage so far this season. The Raiders also went 17-for-27 from downtown for 63 percent shooting, again the highest this season. Colgate's previous 3-point record in a game under the Langel era was 14, which was set twice last season against Coppin State and St. Francis Pa.
Tulane (4-2) saw Louis Dabney register a career-high 31 points after going 11-for-15 from the floor. Jonathan Stark added 24 points while Jay Hook earned 13.
Colgate came out ready to play as they hit four-straight 3-pointers to take an early 12-2 lead. Moore led the Raiders during that stretch with two of those four.
Following the eight-minute media timeout Jacobs drained a trey to extend the Raiders advantage to 15, at 31-16.
A make from long range by Burnatowski increased Colgate's lead to 20, at 45-25 with under four minutes to play in the half.
Tulane chipped away at the margin a little but a shot from downtown by Jacobs sent the Raiders into halftime with the 19-point advantage at 53-34.
After a Green Wave layup to start the second half, the Raiders continued their hot shooting night with another trey from Burnatowski.
Tulane would not go away, however, as they slowly started the close the deficit. They pulled to within nine at 70-61 following a good jumper by Tomas Bruha but a layup from Sherman-Newsome on the other end quickly extended the Raiders lead back up to double-digits.
Again the Green Wave did not let up as they rallied to go on a 7-0 run in a three minute time-span to make it 74-84 with 5:47 remaining in the game. Tulane would even come to within six at 81-87 with three minutes to play but six-straight from the Raiders gave them back their edge at 93-81 with 1:28 left to play.
In the closing minute of action Sherman-Newsome ultimately secured the Colgate victory with four solid makes from the charity stripe.
The Green Wave slightly outrebounded the Raiders at 29-25 but Colgate held the advantage on points off turnovers 17-11 and bench points 37-8.
Colgate is next on the court Sunday when it travels to nearby Binghamton for another rivalry matchup with the Bearcats at 2 p.m.