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HAMILTON – The Colgate men's basketball team needed a huge victory on Saturday afternoon and that's exactly what it got as it posted a compelling 63-41 win over Navy for its first league win of the season.

The Raiders wasted no time jumping out to a quick start as they scored the game's opening 14 points, keeping the Mids scoreless for the first six minutes and 30 seconds. From that point on, the Raider lead was never in jeopardy as they held a double-figure advantage for almost the entire game, to grab their first league win.

Colgate (7-10, 1-5 PL) led 33-15 at the break and the strong Raider defense during those first 20 minutes forced Navy into its second lowest scoring half of the year. The 15 points allowed was also Colgate's best defensive half of the year. Prior to Saturday's game the Raiders had held Big East foe Georgetown to 21 points in the opening 20 minutes of play on Dec. 7. The Raiders stayed strong throughout the remainder of the game only allowing 41 points for their best overall defensive game of the year.

"We just stuck together," Colgate head coach Matt Langel said of his team's strong defensive effort. "The guys have been working at it really hard. I credit them for continuing to work at that end of the floor. They know that that's something that we can't just hang our hat on, we can't just be shooting shots. If we are going to win games in this league that's something we are going to have to continue to do overtime."

The Raiders' ended a six-game losing skid with the commanding double-digit victory. Austin Tillotson led the way with 10 points, five boards and a game-high five assists. Murphy Burnatowski and Ethan Jacobs both chipped in 11 points while Damon Sherman-Newsome knocked down three of his seven shots for his 10 points. Junior Luke Roh had a huge day on the boards pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds to match his season-high. He also added five points and three helpers to the Raider total.

Colgate shot an impressive 61 percent from the floor in the first and an overall percentage of 53, making 25 of their 47 attempts. Colgate also drained nine of their 19 shots from downtown to finish with 47 percent shooting from long.

Navy (7-10, 2-4 PL) saw two players hit double-figures in Brandon Venturini (11 points) and Zach Fong (10 points). Venturini and Michael Brown both recorded five rebounds to lead the Mids on the boards.

Colgate slightly outrebounded Navy 34-33 but the Mids held the advantage on points in the paint, at 22-18.

Behind the supportive fans and students, who are now back from holiday break, the Raiders scored 14 straight points to take the early 14-0 lead in the opening five minutes of action. Sherman-Newsome registered six of those 14 points during that stretch.

Venturini hit a 3-pointer at the 13:30 mark to give the Mids their first bucket of the game but the Raiders answered going on a 12-5 run over the course of the next three minutes to increase their advantage to 18 points, at 26-8.

With less than four minutes to play before the break, Roh found Burnatowski for an easy jumper to create the half's largest margin at 21-points.

Fong would hit a good trey at the 2:40 mark, but neither team recorded any more points in the final minutes of action, sending the two teams into halftime with an 18-point Colgate edge, at 33-15.

To go along with a scoreless final two minutes and 40 seconds, neither team attempted a free throw throughout the entire first half as well.

The Mids started the second 20 minutes, scoring four straight points to cut the deficit down to 14 at the 17:37 mark but a Jacob's running one-hander ended the Raider drought of more than six minutes and 30 seconds, which spanned back to the end of the first half. Despite going scoreless, Colgate managed to hold Navy to just seven points during that stretch.

Following the scoring drought, Colgate quickly pushed its advantage back to a comfortable 20 points thanks to a made 3-pointer from Alex Ramon with 10 minutes remaining.

In the final four minutes of action the Raiders created their largest lead of the game at 25, twice, and stayed strong to ultimately secured their 22-point victory.

Colgate is back in action Wednesday when it hosts Army at 7 p.m. on Cotterell Court.

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