ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Colgate didn't let a 13-point halftime deficit stop it from making a drastic comeback in the second period.

The number 13 isn't Colgate's lucky number for nothing.
 
The Raiders held Navy to just 17 points in the second half while scoring 42 of their own to take the come-from-behind victory, 65-53, here Saturday afternoon.
 
Colgate tightened up its defensive presence during the second 20 minutes after the Mids had recorded 22 of their first-half points from inside the paint.
 
With the defense flowing, Colgate was able to convert on the offensive side of the court, using a 12-4 run to start the half, cutting the deficit down to five. After Navy had pushed its edge back to seven, Colgate responded in a big way using a 19-4 run to take over the advantage by eight with less than four left to play.
 
The Raiders then deflected any final Mids attempts to regain the lead and finish with the 12-point victory.
 
Overall it was a 25-point swing for Colgate, which grabbed its fifth conference win of the year. The Raiders are now one win away from tying their league victory total from a year ago. With its 5-1 Patriot League record, Colgate now has its best start in conference play since the 1996-97 team went 6-0.

Four Raider players reached double-figures in the game, with Damon Sherman-Newsome leading the way with 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting. The senior also posted a career-high four steals in the game.

Ethan Jacobs added 14 points to the Raiders' total, while Matt McMullen and Luke Roh both chipped in 11 points.
 
McMullen and Jacobs earned a team-best eight rebounds, while junior Austin Tillotson handed out a game-high seven helpers.
 
Colgate closes out its small road swing Wednesday when it travels to Army for another conference game at 7 p.m.
 

Bottom Line
• Colgate 65, Navy 53.
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate remains in first place in the Patriot League with its 5-1 mark. Overall the Raiders sit with an 8-11 record.
• Navy falls to 3-3 in the league and 7-11 overall.

Top of the Table
• With its victory in the game, Colgate remains in first place in the Patriot League standings with a conference record of 5-1.
• The last time the Raiders had such a start to league play was back during the 1996-97 season, when Colgate went 6-0 in its opening games.

Facts & Figures
• For the second time in as many games, Sherman-Newsome led Colgate with a team-best 17 points. The senior went 6-for-11 overall, 3-for-5 from behind the arc and 2-for-4 from the charity stripe. 
• The Anchorage, Alaska, native also added a career-best four steals in his 34 minutes of action.
• He has now hit double-figures in 17 of the Raiders' 19 games this year.
• Jacobs finished 5-for-10 from the floor and added 4-of-5 from the free throw line for his 14 points. The senior also pulled down a team-best eight rebounds, including three on the offensive glass.
• Tied with him for the team-high eight boards was McMullen, who notched double-digit scoring as well with 11 points.
• Roh registered 11 points after going 3-for-6 and hitting all five of his free throw attempts to close out the Raider players in double-figures.
• In the game, Colgate shot 50 percent from the floor and 53.3 percent from 3-point range, while making 13 of its 18 attempts from the charity stripe.
• Navy finished shooting 46.9 percent overall and 26.7 percent from downtown. The Mids converted on just three of their eight chances from the free throw line.
• Colgate had its second-best defensive half of the season, holding the Mids to their lowest scoring half during the second 20 minutes of play.
• The Raiders held the slight edge on rebounds at 29-26, while handing out 14 assists to the Mids' 12.
• Navy converted 36 of its total 53 points from inside the paint, but the Raiders added 12 points off of second-chance opportunities. 
• Colgate's largest lead of the game came following its final free throw attempt with 24 seconds remaining. Jacobs pushed the Raiders edge to 12 points when he swished in his fourth make from the charity stripe. 
• The Raiders had the advantage for just 6:50, while Navy had the lead for 32:59. The game was tied for 11 seconds. 

Navy's Numbers
• Seniors Brandon Venturini and Worth Smith led the Mids in scoring with 20 and 10 points, respectively.
• Venturini drained 4-of-8 from behind the arc to finish the day shooting 8-for-13. Sixteen of his total 20 points came in the first half alone, while he also hit all three Navy 3-pointers in the contest.
• Smith was 5-of-11 from the floor before leaving the game with an injury.
• Kendall Knorr posted a team-high six rebounds, while adding a team-high five assists.

Interesting Notes
• Colgate made it two-straight victories over the Mids after defeating Navy 57-51 a year ago in the Patriot League Tournament.
• Colgate held the Mids to just 17 points in the second period, Navy's worst scoring half of the year.
• The Raiders overcame a 13-point halftime deficit and finished with a 12-point victory in the game. In total, it was a 25-point swing.
• The Raiders are outscoring their opponents in league play by an average of 7.6 points per game.
• In the last six games, the Raiders are shooting 50 percent from the floor and 47 percent from long.
• Sherman-Newsome recorded double-figures in the game for his sixth consecutive game. He has hit double-digits in 17 of the Raiders' 19 games so far this season. 
• The only two contests Sherman-Newsome missed that mark were contests in which he got injured during the game. 
• Jacobs and Roh are also riding double-digit scoring streaks, with Jacobs sitting with seven straight and Roh four. 

Cool Numbers
• Colgate is 5-1 in the Patriot League with an average score of 68-60, rounding to whole numbers. But what's interesting are the two halves.
• The Raiders are losing at halftime by an average score of 32-28, but are outscoring their opponents 40-28 in the second half (including the two overtime periods at American).

How It Happened
• Navy started the game on a 7-0 run, keeping Colgate scoreless until the 13:20 mark of the opening half when Jacobs converted a layup. 
• After the Raiders cut the Mids advantage to four, Colgate saw Navy answer with a 6-0 run to create an 11-point deficit between the teams at 16-5 midway through the period.
• The Raiders then went cold for eight minutes, allowing the Mids to take a game-high 15-point lead over them at 33-18.
• A 5-0 Colgate run over the next 90 seconds cut into Navy's lead, but a trey from Venturini to close out the half sent the Raiders into the break down 36-23.
• Colgate started the second 20 minutes on a 12-4 run to make it a five-point game (40-35) just three minutes in. All of the Raiders' points came from behind the arc, with both Sherman-Newsome and McMullen draining two each.
• After Navy's Tilman Dunbar hit one of his two free throw attempts to push the Mids led to seven, Colgate used a 19-4 run to take over the advant.
• The Raiders were then able to hold strong in the remaining three minutes and 30 seconds to steal the victory. Sherman-Newsome had five of Colgate final eight points during that stretch.

Records Watch
• Moore, who is still within reach of breaking the 1,000-point barrier for his career, currently sits with 881 points.
• Tillotson already has 91 season assists this year. He recorded 133 helpers a year ago during his first season with the Maroon and White, placing him third all-time.
• With Roh's two assists in Saturday's game he now has 302 career helpers. He is 21 assists shy of matching Alvin Reed '06 for fourth place all-time.

Straight from the Source
• Colgate head coach Matt Langel: (Overall thoughts from the game) "I'm proud of our team.
"Pat Moore has been here at Colgate for five years, Matt McMullen and Luke Roh for four years and Damon (Sherman-Newsome), Ethan (Jacobs) and Austin (Tillotson) now for three years. They've been through a lot of hardship. When you're a young person and you go through those difficult times of not being able to win, you can go one of two ways. You can either suck it up and figure out ways to get over the hump or you can kind of just toss in the towel and say, 'It's just too much; I've given everything I have.' Every one of our guys has decided to suck it up and find a way to get over the hump.
"The balls were bouncing our way in the second half, there is no doubt about it. We made tougher shots in the second half than we had in the first.
"Worth Smith for Navy going down with an injury definitely impacts the game. He is as good as anybody in our league.
"We did a good job of driving the basketball to get them in some trouble, and then our guys played significantly better defense. We switched on some of their set actions so we wouldn't get behind. We forced them to take difficult shots and then closed out good possessions with rebounds."
(On closing the 13-point halftime deficit) "We didn't talk very much at halftime about offense. Our guys really trust in one another on the offensive end. We got a lot of good shots in the first half, so we said to just continue to trust in the offense and to use all your energy to play defense. Maybe that gave them some freedom to step up and make shots.
"But I told them I was planning on playing a lot more guys in the second half because they were going to have to use a lot more energy to fight on the defensive end to get out of the hole. On offensive, the fact that we made some of those shots early kept us from having to do that. We got right back in there in a hurry."

Up Next
• The Raiders visit Army on Wednesday for a midweek conference game in West Point, New York. That contest is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip.
• The Black Knights dropped their most recent contest at Bucknell on Saturday. 
• Army currently sits with a 2-4 conference mark.
• The Raiders and Black Knights will go head-to-head for their 115th all-time meeting. Army holds the slight 58-56 series advantage.
• During last year's two regular season games, Army took both contests by defeating the Raiders 66-63 in Hamilton before taking a 74-66 victory on its home court.