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HAMILTON – The Colgate men's basketball team hung with visiting Albany for 35 minutes, but the Great Danes pulled away in the final five minutes to capture a 74-66 win Saturday afternoon at Cotterell Court.
 
Sophomore Francisco Amiel led the Raiders with a career-best 21 points. His career day included personal bests in field goals made (6), three-pointers (5) and minutes (34). Junior Jordan Swopshire followed with 15 points, while classmate Sean O'Brien chipped in 14.
 
The Great Danes took an early 8-2 lead four minutes into the game, but Amiel tossed in a layup before draining back-to-back three-pointers to put the Raiders in front 10-8 with 14:14 on the clock.
 
Colgate was ahead 15-13 following an O'Brien jumper less than two minutes later, but Albany answered with a 8-0 streak to pull ahead 21-15 with just under 10 minutes to play. A layup from sophomore Dana Batt halted the Great Dane run and Amiel followed with his career-high third three-pointer of the game to narrow the Albany lead to 21-20 with 7:26 on the clock.
 
A Great Dane jumper put Albany back up by three, but a free throw from sophomore David Krmpotich was followed by three-pointer from first-year Will Rayman and an O'Brien layup to give the Raiders back the lead at 26-23 with 4:41 left in the first half.  The Great Danes scored the next eight points to reclaim the lead, but an O'Brien conventional three-point play and Swopshire jumper helped the Raiders hang within four at 35-31 heading into halftime.  
 
Five points from Amiel and free throws from Swopshire and sophomore Malcolm Regisford allowed the Raiders to tie the game at 39 less than four minutes into the second half.  The Great Danes then strung together an 8-2 run over the next six minutes as Colgate went cold from the field and Albany pulled ahead 47-41 with just under 10 minutes to play.
 
Five points from Swopshire had Colgate within three at 51-48 three minutes later, but Albany rattled off an 11-0 run over the next five-plus minutes to put the Raiders in a 62-48 with 2:02 on the clock. A Rayman layup finally stopped the Great Dane streak and O'Brien, Swopshire and Amiel added points in the final minute, but Albany used a strong showing from the charity stripe to close out the 74-66 win.
 
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Albany 74, Colgate 66

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• The Raiders drop to 2-9 on the season.
• Albany improves to 6-4 overall.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• Amiel's career-best 21 points came from a 5-for-6 showing from downtown, 4-for-4 clip from the free throw line, and 6-for-9 effort from the field.
• Amiel becomes the fifth Raider to score 20 or more points in a game this season.
• Swopshire turned out his seventh double-digit effort of the season, while O'Brien tallied his eighth.
• Regisford led the team with eight rebounds, while O'Brien dished a team-best three assists.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• Colgate finished the game shooting 51.1 percent (23-for-45) from the field, 37.9 percent (11-for-29) from three-point range and 81.8 percent (9-for-11) from the free throw line.
• The Great Danes shot 51.0 percent (26-for-51) from the floor, 33.3 percent (3-for-9) from downtown and 73.1 percent (19-for-26) from the charity stripe.
• Albany held a 29-22 rebound edge. The Great Danes scored 15 second-chance points thanks to 11 offensive boards.
• Albany's Joe Cremo registered a game-high 29 points, while David Nichols chipped in 17.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel

• "When we played good defense we were in the game. They've got a fantastic player in Joe Cremo who scored 29 points on 14 shots and 9 free throws. Albany really battled on the glass and got the big offensive rebounds. When you don't get as many shots as the opposition because of turnovers or their offensive rebounding, it makes it really hard to win a game."
• "Francisco is a good player. We've known that for a while and he works tirelessly. We're excited about his continued growth and development."

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders will take a nine-day final exam break and return to action on Dec. 19 at Notre Dame.
• Tipoff from South Bend, Ind. is set for 7 p.m.
• All information on how to follow can be found at Game Central.