BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Colgate cheering section was in full force Wednesday afternoon as they watched their Raiders win their first Patriot League opener since the 2009-10 season.
 
Colgate ended 2014 with a 68-61 victory over Lehigh here at Stabler Arena.
 
The game marked the first time Colgate won its conference opener since Jan. 9, 2010 when the Maroon and White posted a 68-58 victory over Army to kick off league play.
 
Colgate started the contest a little slow as Lehigh quickly jumped out to a nine-point lead after two made free throws from Tim Kempton, 12 minutes and 30 seconds into the game. The Raiders responded with a 14-4 run over the next four minutes to take over the advantage at 23-22.
 
After making the final two buckets of the half, Colgate took a five-point lead into the break.
 
The Raiders didn't stop there as they continued their run with back-to-back treys from Jacobs to start the second 20 minutes of play. Colgate kept the Mountain Hawks scoreless for a little more than five minutes, spanning back to the end of the first half. The Raiders also used a 21-2 run over the course of nine minutes and 25 seconds during that stretch to create a gap between the teams.
 
Colgate hit its largest lead of the game at 23 points with five minutes remaining when Sherman-Newsome hit his final trey of the contest.
 
The Mountain Hawks would try to rally in the last minutes with a 19-3 run of their own but the margin proved to be too much.
 
Senior Ethan Jacobs had 16 of the Raiders' 21 points during their big stretch including three makes from downtown. He finished the game shooting a perfect 9-for-9 from the floor, 4-for-4 from long and 2-for-2 from the line. The last time a Raider player had a perfect shooting night was back on Dec. 1, 2013 when current teammate Austin Tillotson went 9-for-9 from the floor, 4-for-4 from behind the arc, and 3-for-3 from the line.
 
Jacobs added eight rebounds, which was one board shy of matching his season-best. And if it weren't for his one turnover the Tipton, Indiana, native would have posted a perfect game during his 31 minutes.
 
Adding to the Colgate total was Damon Sherman-Newsome's 12 points and Matt McMullen's 10 points. Luke Roh chipped in nine points to go along with his team-high nine rebounds, while Tillotson matched his career-best in assists with 10.
 
Colgate returns home to Cotterell Court on Saturday when it hosts Bucknell for its conference home opener at 2 p.m.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 68, Lehigh 61
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate improves to 4-10 overall and 1-0 in Patriot League play
• Lehigh dips to 6-6 and 0-1, respectively
 
Facts & Figures
• For the second time in the last two games Jacobs led all scorers with his 24 points in the contest. In the Raiders last outing at Columbia, Jacobs recorded a career-best 26 points, making that two 20-plus point games in a week.
• Jacobs went a perfect 9-for-9 from the floor, 4-for-4 from 3-point range and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe for his impressive shooting night.
• The Tipton, Indiana, native was one bucket shy of matching the Patriot League record for best field goal percentage in a game. That mark stands at 10-for-10 and has happened just twice with Bucknell's Donald Brown (against Lehigh on Jan. 12, 2004) and American's Patrick Doctor (against Lafayette on Feb. 9, 2002) reaching that feat.
• Two other Raider players reached double-figures in Sherman-Newsome and McMullen with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
• Roh pulled down a game-best nine rebounds to go along with his nine points, while Tillotson matched his career-high in assists with 10.
• Overall Colgate shot a season-best 57.8 percent from the floor after making 26 of its 45 attempts. The Raiders also matched their second-best shooting night from long hitting 50 percent of their shots from behind the arc.  
• Colgate held the edge on assists at 19-15, while committing 16 turnovers to the Mountain Hawks' seven.  
• Colgate converted 24 points from inside the paint and scored 15 points off of Lehigh turnovers. The Mountain Hawks, however, scored 19 points off of turnovers to go along with a 12-6 edge on bench points.  
• Lehigh was led by Kahron Ross, who posted 15 points in the game, including 12 in the second half alone, seven in the final five minutes. The Mountain Hawks leading scorer Kempton recorded 14 points with 12 of those coming in the opening half of play. Closing out the Lehigh players in double-figures was Brandon Alston with 12 points, all of which came in the second half.
• The Mountain Hawks saw Kempton lead the team on the boards with eight, while Ross handed out a team-best seven assists.
• The game saw three tie scores to go along with its four lead changes.
• Colgate's largest lead of the game at 23 points came with a little more than five minutes left to play after Sherman-Newsome drained a 3-pointer. Lehigh held its largest lead of the contest at nine points, 12 minutes and 30 seconds into the game.
• The Raiders had the lead for 23 minutes and 48 seconds, while the Mountain Hawks held the edge for 13:43. The game was tied for 1:56.

Game Recap
• Colgate hit the game's opening bucket but the Mountain Hawks answered with seven points of their own to take an early lead.
• Lehigh extended its edge to its largest of the game at nine-points following two made free throws from Kempton but the Raiders answered with a 14-4 run to go back ahead by one with eight minutes left to play in the half.
• With the game tied at 27-all late in the first period, Colgate finished the half on a 7-2 run, 4-0 rally to close out the opening 20 minutes, to take a five-point advantage into the break.
• The Raiders continued their run early in the second half, finishing scoring 21 points to Lehigh's two over the course of nine minutes and 25 seconds, spanning back to the end of the first period.
• That run gave Colgate a 20-point margin between the teams and the Raiders increased that to a game-high 23-points with five minutes and 18 seconds remaining in the game.
• The Mountain Hawks would not go away, however, answering with a 10-0 run of their own to pull within 13 but the deficit would ultimately prove to be too much.

Interesting Notes
• Colgate recorded its first victory in its Patriot League opener since the 2009-10 season when the Raiders earned a 68-58 win over Army.
• Sherman-Newsome got back on the double-figure scoring track with 12 points in the contest. He has now reached double-digits in 12 of Colgate's 14 games, missing just two due to suffering an injury in each game.
• Tillotson had his three-game double-figure scoring streak halted on Wednesday but did match his career-best in assists with 10.
• The junior has hit double-figures in 12 of Colgate's 14 games as well, while in the two games he missed that mark he recorded a career-high 10 helpers.
• Jacobs was one bucket shy of matching a Patriot League recorded after going a perfect 9-for-9 from the floor.
• McMullen matched his career-best in assists with four.

Straight From The Source
• Colgate head coach Matt Langel: (on what was the key to his team's 21-2 run that ultimately put the game away) "Our leadership. The veteran guys have really worked their tails off throughout our difficulties this season. We've played well enough to win a lot of these games but we haven't played tough enough in crucial stretches and the veteran guy don't want that to continue. So they've really worked hard in practice and they played with great energy today even when we got down a little bit early, they battled back. They were really focused on making sure we had success."
 
"Obviously it was our night shooting the ball. Ethan (Jacobs) took his matchup personally with (Tim) Kempton, who is a really talented guy. So I think Ethan had a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. Overall I was really proud of everyone top to bottom. The bench was really enthusiastic and into the game and that helped us out a ton when we needed it. A road win in a league play game is huge for us."
 
(on his thoughts on what the difference has been for Ethan's shooting over the last two games (26 and 24 points)). "In my 10 years in coaching sometimes seniors want something so bad they press a little bit and are a little slow to develop. I think that was the case here. He's worked really hard this summer and during the preseason he just wasn't making the open shots but now they're starting to go down. And we absolutely need them to go."
 
(on being able to hold onto a lead late and get the win) "The difference was that we got a 23-point lead. We continued to play, push and not relax. The lesson for us is to finish those games and pay a little more attention to our details when it's five minutes left and you're up 23 points. Because the opposition has to gamble being that they have nothing to lose. So that for us will be a lesson to learn, but for me our toughness, energy and effort was really as good as it's been all year today."

Up Next
• Colgate travels back to Hamilton for its conference home opener with Bucknell on Saturday. That game is scheduled for a 2 p.m. start.
• The Bison hosted the league's pre-season favorite American on Wednesday, taking a 57-47 victory over the Eagles.
• The Raiders and Bison will go head-to-head for their 103rd all-time meeting. Bucknell holds the 62-40 record advantage.
• The Bison took both meetings a season ago with the last Raider victory coming during the 2008-09 season when they defeated Bucknell 68-57 at home.