HAMILTON – Shorthanded Colgate turned in a furious fourth-quarter rally, but it was no match for one of Army West Point's best efforts of the season.
 
Army used an 11-0 run in the second quarter and a 13-0 outburst in the third to overtake Colgate in a 76-69 Patriot League victory. The Black Knights outscored the Raiders 35-19 in the middle two periods and led by as many as 20 points.
 
Already missing first-year contributors Tegan Graham and Haley Greer because of injury, Colgate first-year Rachel Thompson was sidelined Wednesday after undergoing surgery to repair a fractured nose. Army forced the shuffled Colgate lineup into 24 turnovers, the home team's second-worst showing of the year.
 
The Black Knights also commanded the boards by a 50-38 edge for their second-best total of the season. They turned 25 offensive rebounds into 26 second-chance points.
 
A huge factor was Army's combined 48-24 edge on second-chance tallies and points off turnovers.
 
Katie Curtis led Colgate with 19 points thanks to a career-best 10-of-10 effort at the free throw line. Chelsey Koren finished one point off her collegiate high, scoring 18, while Mackenzie Carroll added 10.
 
Army's Madison Hovren, who already is a five-time Patriot League Player of the Week honoree this season, polished her credentials further with 30 points and a career-high 22 rebounds.
 
A crowd of 1,534 packed Cotterell Court for the second annual Kids Game.
 
Bottom Line
• Army West Point 76, Colgate 69
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate is now 5-11 overall and 2-3 in the Patriot League.
• Army West Point improved to 12-4 and 3-2.
 
Quick Recap
• Colgate scored the game's first five points, but there were six lead changes in the first quarter.
• The Raiders led 19-14 and 21-16, the latter on Carroll's layup with 1:08 left in the period.
• But Army finished on a 6-1 run and tied it 22-22 after one quarter. Colgate's Curtis and Army's Hovren already had nine points apiece to lead all scorers.
• After Kateri Stone opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer, Colgate's offense went dark.
• Army reeled off the next 11 points to take a 33-25 lead.
• Not until Summer King made one of two free throws with 1:10 remaining in the half did Colgate break its 8:23 scoreless drought.
• The Black Knights led 35-28 at halftime. The Raiders in that second quarter were 1-of-8 from the field with 11 turnovers.
• Army put together a 13-0 run in the third quarter to take its largest lead of the game at 54-34 with 3:58 showing.
• Colgate pulled within 57-41 entering the fourth quarter.
• The Raiders then went to work and whittled Army's lead to 62-53 on a Curtis jumper with 6:07 left.
• They got as close as 70-65 on Stone's 3-pointer with 1:23 left, and Colgate outscored Army 28-19 in the final period.
• But the Knights made just enough free throws to maintain a comfortable distance.
 
Facts & Figures
• Colgate's 28 points in the fourth marked their second-highest-scoring quarter of the season (29 vs. Lafayette) and their best final period.
• Koren missed her career scoring high by one point but posted personal bests of eight rebounds and 39 minutes played.
• She was 3-of-5 from downtown and now leads the team at 44.1 percent from 3-point distance.
• Curtis' 10-of-10 afternoon at the line marked Colgate's best perfect free throw performance of the season. The previous was Thompson's 7-of-7 at Siena.
• Curtis' best perfect game in college before Wednesday was 4-of-4. She raised her season free throw percentage from 64.9 to 70.1.
• Carroll scored in double figures for the third time this season and the first since she tallied 16 at UMass Lowell.
• The Raiders were a combined 5-of-23 from the field in the middle two quarters and then 9-of-15 in the final period.
• Colgate's nine 3-pointers were the team's third most of the season.
• The Black Knights attempted 77 field goals to Colgate's 53, more than offsetting a slight disadvantage in shooting accuracy.
• For Army, Hovren's previous career rebounding high was 17 earlier this year at Minnesota. She has 11 double-doubles in 16 games played this season.
 
From the Source
• Colgate head coach Bill Cleary: (On the game) "We're playing well in 20-minute spurts, but it's a 40-minute game. Even with us being short-staffed today, we worked hard. But there were stretches in the second and third quarter where we just allowed them to pretty much dictate everything. We're digging ourselves too big of a hole and it's tough to climb out."
 
(On the fourth quarter rally) "We had to go back to the game plan. We did a really nice job in the first quarter of going at them. Because of our lack of numbers, we were deliberate in some of the things we were doing and got a lot of wide-open looks.
 
"They believe in what we are doing so much that they rush through it. They have to be disciplined in what we do. They still have to execute it. If we set it up properly, it's going to work every time. We shot 60 percent in the fourth quarter and 63 percent from three, so it's about the setup and about not rushing through it."
 
(On the Kids Game) "Nathalie (Carter) and her staff did a fantastic job of putting this together. It was a lot of fun out there and we heard them. The school kids were great – two of them were my own, Billy and Chase. I loved the environment and I loved the atmosphere. When we can get people into Cotterell, that's a great home court advantage."
 
Listen to the rest of Coach Cleary's comments HERE.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance for the second annual Kids Game at Cotterell Court was 1,534.
 
Up Next
• Colgate is on the road Saturday at Bucknell.
• The Bison lead the Patriot League at 4-0 heading into their Wednesday night game at Lehigh.
• Tipoff is 2 p.m.

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