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HAMILTON. – Colgate men's basketball finally christened Cotterell Court here Wednesday night for its 2014-15 home opener against Albany after being on the road for its first four games.
 
Unfortunately, the Great Danes posted a 75-71 victory over the Raiders to spoil the night.
 
The four-point loss was the closest margin of defeat for the Raiders this season. And if it wasn't for Albany going 4-for-4 from the free throw line in the last 15 seconds the outcome might have been a little different.
 
Colgate's Damon Sherman-Newsome hit a critical 3-pointer with 15 seconds remaining to pull the Raiders to within two, at 71-69. Head coach Matt Langel then instructed his team to foul the Great Danes in hopes of at least one miss from the charity stripe. Sadly, that did not happen and Albany finished the game by icing its last four from the line.
 
Sherman-Newsome led all scorers with 21 points after going 8-of-14 from the floor. He also went 3-for-6 from downtown and 2-of-2 from the line for his second 20-point scoring night in the last three contests. The Anchorage, Alaska, native pulled down a team-high five boards, while also leading the Raiders with two steals.
 
Austin Tillotson and Ethan Jacobs both added 14 points each to the Raiders' total, to close out the Colgate scorers in double-figures. Tillotson handed out a team-high five assists to match his season-best, while Jacobs drained 2-of-4 from behind the arc.

Colgate next faces Arizona State on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona. The game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip (Mountain Time).
 
Bottom Line
• Albany 75, Colgate 71
 
Records
• Albany shifts to .500 on the season at 2-2.
• Colgate falls to 1-4 overall.

Facts & Figures
• Sherman-Newsome hit double-figures for the fifth time this season after grabbing 21 points in the game.
• The sociology major went 8-for-14 from the floor, 3-of-6 from behind the arc, and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe for his second 20-point game in the last three contests.
• His double-digit scoring streak now extends to eight-straight games, dating back to March 1 of last season.
• Tillotson and Jacobs both added 14 points, while Luke Roh and Matt McMullen recorded 9 and 8 points, respectively.
• Colgate shot an impressive season-best 57.1 percent from the floor to go along with its season-high 45 percent from long. Albany shot 48 percent on the night and made half of its shots from downtown going 9-for-18.
• The Great Danes won the rebounding margin at 32-20 but the Raiders slightly shot better from the free throw line (6-of-8 to 18-of-25).
• Albany converted 11 points off of Raider turnovers compared to Colgate's six. The Great Danes also notched nine second chance opportunities to the Raiders two.  
• The winning squad saw four players in double-digits with Sam Rowley leading the way with a double-double. He recorded 18 points and 11 boards on the night. Evan Singletary, Ray Sanders and Peter Hooley all added 14 points each to the Great Danes total. Sanders earned a team-best five boards, while Hooley knocked down 3-of-8 from long to go along with his game-high six assists.
 
Turning Point
• After being down by 10 with 10 minutes left in the contest, Colgate rallied to cut the deficit down to four following a made 3-pointer from Jacobs with 31 seconds left.
• Unfortunately, the Great Danes finished 5-of-6 from the line in the final seconds to escape the Raiders' ending push.     
 
Game Breakdown
• In the opening 20 minutes of play the fans saw eight lead changes and four tie scores.
• Tillotson gave Colgate its largest lead of the night at six (14-8) with 12:43 left to play in the half, following a make from downtown. The Great Danes would answer with a 10-6 run during the next two minutes, however, to take over the lead by one.
• The game went back-and-forth throughout the remainder of the half and a good trey from Sherman-Newsome with no time left on the clock sent the teams into the break tied at 29-all.
• Midway through the second half, Albany sparked a 14-5 run, which featured three makes from behind the arc to extend its edge to the largest of the game at 10.
• The Raiders would not go away though as they slowly chipped away at the deficit making it a four-point Great Danes lead with 30 second remaining. Unfortunately, Colgate was unable to overcome the margin and eventually fell in the game. 
 
Interesting Notes
• Tillotson now has 26 career double-digit scoring games, while also reaching that feat in all of the Raiders contests so far this year.
• Sherman-Newsome notched his eighth-straight double-figure scoring game, and fifth of this season with 21 points in the game. This was also the second time in three games the senior reached 20-plus points in a contest.
• The Raiders shot a season-best 57 percent from the floor and 45 percent from long.

From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Matt Langel: (on his team's season-best shooting night despite the loss) "I think our offense was fine in the game. But when you're going to have 12 turnovers, with our style team, it's just going to be to difficult to get out of. Combined that with their 11 offensive rebounds they were just too many possessions we needed to make up for. They did a really good job of getting to the free throw line in the second half, obviously late we were fouling, but overall they did a good job of getting us into foul trouble throughout."
 
"I credit Albany, but our defense wasn't where it needed to be in order to win the game."
 
(on his team's final attempts in the last minute of play) "We were kind of scrambling after having used all our timeouts earlier to keep the game within reach. You've got to foul and hope they miss some foul shots. Then hope you can get it down to the other end of the court to make up a big margin in a hurry."

Up Next
• Colgate now heads to Tempe, Arizona, for a contest with Arizona State on Saturday at 7 p.m. Mountain time.
• The Sun Devils are coming off a 76-71 loss to Alabama as part of the CBE Classic in Kansas City, Missouri.  
• These two teams have faced each other twice prior to Saturday's contest with Arizona State holding the 2-0 series edge.

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