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HAMILTON – Despite a 20-point performance from senior captain Murphy Burnatowski, the Colgate men's basketball team couldn't overcome a 15-point first half deficit and dropped a 79-68 decision to Bucknell on Saturday afternoon.

The Raiders came out of the gate scoring eight quick points to take the early 8-2 lead, but Bucknell responded with a 10-0 run to take the advantage, at 12-8. From that point on the Raiders had to play catch-up. Bucknell pushed its lead to a game-high 15 points at the half but Colgate responded in the second 20 minutes cutting the deficit to seven, at 45-36 with 14 minutes to play. Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Raiders would come as the Bison secured an 11-point victory.

Colgate (8-13,2-8 PL) received a team-high performance from Burnatowski, who recorded his fourth 20-point game of the season. The Waterloo, Ont., native also pulled down six boards in the contest to go along with his 3-of-3 shooting from behind the arc. Damon Sherman-Newsome and Austin Tillotson posted 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Tillotson handed out a team-high four assists. Matt McMullen notched a team-high seven rebounds to lead the Raiders on the boards.

The Raiders went 25-of-56 from the floor for 45 percent shooting. Colgate also hit five of its 12 shots from long.

Bucknell (10-11, 5-5 PL) saw four Bison players reach double-digits with Cameron Ayers leading the way with a game-high 21 points. Ben Brackney added 11 points while Chris Hass and Steven Kasper both registered 10 points each. Brackney also pulled down a game-high eight boards in the win.

Overall the Bison shot 51 percent from the floor and 47 percent from downtown. Bucknell also converted 15 points off of Raider turnovers. Colgate, however, held the slight advantage on rebounds 33-32 and on points in the paint, at 30-22.

Colgate started the half on an 8-2 run to take the early advantage, but the Bison answered with a 10-0 run of their own to take over the lead at 12-8 with 14:12 left to play in the half.

Colgate would not let up, though, cutting the Bison lead down to two, at 17-15 with 11:12 to play.

But again, Bucknell would use a run to create a 13-point margin between the teams, at 28-15.

Ayers would hit a jumper before the half to create the game's largest margin at 15 points, sending the Bison into the break with the 39-24 advantage.

Colgate kicked off the opening five minutes of the second half on a 15-4 run to cut the Bison lead to seven, at 43-36. But a 15-7 Bucknell run over the next four minutes pushed the Bison advantage to 14-points at 57-43.

The Raiders and Bison exchanged baskets over the course of the next eight minutes and Colgate pulled to within 11-points with 1:32 left to play. Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Raiders would come as Bucknell finished the game from the free throw line, making nine of its final 11 attempts.

Colgate has a quick turnaround as it welcomes Holy Cross to Cotterell Court on Tuesday for a 9 p.m. matchup on CBS Sports Network. The game is also the Raiders' annual LGBTQ Awareness Game.

NOTES: Rookie Andrew Bargmann notched a career-high four points in the loss while also pulling down a career-high two boards in 14 minutes of action ... Colgate matched its season-low eight turnovers in the game ... Prior to today's game Sherman-Newsome had recorded at least one trey in all of the Raiders' games this season ... Burnatowski has now posted double-figures in Colgate's last six games.

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