HAMILTON – The Colgate men's basketball team drained a program-record 18 three-pointers en route to a 91-68 win over Union Tuesday night in the Raiders' home debut at Cotterell Court.
 
The 18 made three-pointers also tied a Patriot League single-game record as Colgate finished the game shooting 56.3 percent (18-for-32) from downtown. Four Raiders turned out double-digit efforts, led by junior Tom Rivard's season-best 17 points. Junior Jordan Swopshire and first-year Will Rayman contributed 15 apiece, while junior Sean O'Brien added 11 points and a team-best seven assists.
 
Union took an early 4-0 lead, but it would prove to be the Dutchmen's only lead of the game as a pair of Swopshire three-pointers helped Colgate score nine of the next 12 points to jump ahead 12-7 less than four minutes into the game. Rayman scored the next seven Colgate points, but Union was still within four at 20-16 with 12:11 left on the first-half clock.
 
Back-to-back baskets from Rivard then sparked a 20-8 Colgate streak that took 5:39 off the clock and stretched the Raider lead to 42-24 with 4:12 left in the opening half. The Dutchmen spent the last four minutes of the half on a 13-8 streak to cut into the Colgate advantage, but the Raiders carried a 50-38 lead into the locker room.
 
Union narrowed Colgate's lead to 10 less than three minutes into the second half, but a Swopshire trey and a pair of O'Brien three-pointers brought the Raider advantage back to 17 at 62-45 with 14:36 on the clock.
 
The Raiders continued their hot three-point shooting, draining four treys over the next three minutes as the score read 71-52 at 11:25. The Dutchmen answered with seven-straight points, but Colgate responded with a 12-2 streak over the next four minutes to work its lead to 83-61 with just over five minutes to play.
 
The Dutchmen were never able to recover as baskets from Rivard, junior Jordan Robertson and sophomore Sam Lindgren helped Colgate cement a 91-68 win.
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Colgate 91, Union 68

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• The Raiders improve to 2-4 on the season.
• Union falls to 1-3 overall.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• The single-game three-point record previously stood at 17 and was set against Tulane on Nov. 26, 2013. The Raiders tied the Patriot League record of 18 made three-pointers that was set by Lafayette on three different occasions (most recently Feb. 22, 2012).
• Swopshire drained a team-best five treys, while Rayman went 4-for-5 from downtown. 
• Senior Andrew Bargmann and Rayman both made their first career starts against the Dutchmen. Bargmann scored a season-best seven points and set new career bests in minutes (22) and rebounds (3).
• Sophomore Malcom Regisford pulled down a team-best eight rebounds to go along with his seven points.
• Fifteen Raiders saw action in the game. First-year Jack Buckmelter and junior Dylan Whitbread saw their first career minutes.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• The Raiders finished the game shooting 52.6 percent (30-for-57) from the field and 65 percent (13-for-20) from the free throw line.
• Colgate held Union to a 42.9 (24-for-56) field goal percentage, and a 36.0 (9-for-25) percent clip from downtown.
• The Raiders won the battle of the boards, 33-30.
• Colgate scored 23 points off of 15 Union turnovers.
• Union's Deshon Burgess scored a game-high 20 points.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel

• "This is the beginning of a long week for our team. We've had a couple of really hard practices and we're concentrating on being consistent and our attention to detail. If we do that, I think we've showed signs of being able to be a good team. We're not close to being there yet and we've got a lot of hard work to do to be consistent in those areas."
• "Union changed defenses a bunch and we made some shots. We did okay at times on defense, which allowed us to separate a bit, but at other times we didn't do what we're supposed to do. We've got a lot of work to do and fortunately we have three games against three different types of teams coming up this weekend. It should help us learn about our team and help us see what we need to do to get better."
• "We got a lot of good looks from three-point range tonight, as we have in the past few games. Sometimes the ball is going to go in the basket and sometimes its not. We work really hard at our shooting and work hard at taking what their defense gives us. The ball isn't always going to go in the basket, so our concentration needs to be on the details on the other end. To shoot it as well as we've been and not have more significant separation is where the concern lies."

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders head to Charleston, S.C. this weekend for three games at the Holy City Hoops Classic.
• Colgate begins action Friday at 2 p.m. against host Citadel.
• The Raiders face Campbell at 2 p.m. Saturday before wrapping up the weekend with a 1 p.m. contest against USC Upstate.
• All information on how to follow can be found at Game Central.