CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Colgate men's basketball team held a 17-point lead early on in the second half, but the ACC's Boston College surged back to take a late lead before holding off a Colgate rally to claim a narrow 83-79 win Wednesday evening.
 
Colgate senior Sean O'Brien led six Raiders in double-figures with 16 points. Junior Dana Batt registered his first career double-double with career-high marks of 11 points and 12 rebounds.
 
The Eagles made the game's first basket, but Colgate rattled off a 13-0 run over the next 4:37. Batt chipped in seven points during the stretch as Colgate shot 5-for-6 from the floor to take a 13-2 lead less than five minutes into the game.
 
Boston College rallied back with a 12-0 run of its own as Colgate momentarily went cold and the Eagles knotted the score at 13 with 9:13 to play in the first term. The teams traded small leads over the next few minutes until a jumper from first-year Jordan Burns at the 7:05 mark sparked a 21-6 half-closing run for the Raiders.
 
Colgate made six of its final 10 shots of the opening term, five of which were three-pointers, while holding BC to a 2-for-9 mark. Junior Jordan Swopshire and sophomore Will Rayman each chipped in six points apiece during the run to give Colgate a 41-27 lead at halftime.
 
Colgate carried its momentum right into the second half as treys from O'Brien and junior Francisco Amiel worked Colgate's lead all the way to 17 at 47-30 and forced a BC timeout less than three minutes into the stanza.
 
The Raiders were ahead 49-33 after a Swopshire jumper, but Boston College clawed back with a 33-6 streak over the next 11:10 to erase the Raider lead and pull ahead 66-55 with 4:26 to play.
 
A Jack Ferguson three-pointer finally broke Colgate's scoreless streak with just over four minutes left on the clock. The Raiders stayed within striking distance before treys from Swopshire and Burns pulled Colgate back within five at 74-69 with 58 seconds to play.
 
Ferguson drained another clutch three-pointer at the 26-second mark to cut the BC lead down to three, but the Eagles made their free throws down the stretch to seal the 83-79 victory.  
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Boston College 83, Colgate 79

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• Boston College improves to 5-1 on the season, its best start in 10 years.
• The Raiders fall to 2-2 on the young season.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• O'Brien led Colgate's balanced scoring with 16 points, while Swopshire (13), Ferguson (12), Batt (11), Burns (11) and Rayman (11) followed.
• Ferguson and O'Brien led the team's efforts from behind the arc with four three-pointers apiece.
• Seven of Batt's 12 rebounds were offensive boards.
• Rayman followed with seven rebounds.
• In addition to O'Brien's team-best 16 points, the senior guard dished a team-high six assists and added five rebounds.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• Colgate finished the game shooting 38.2 percent (26-for-68) from the field. The Raiders shot 43.8 percent (14-for-32) in the first half, but were held to a 33.3 percent (12-for-36) clip in the second term.
• BC shot 56.0 percent (14-for-25) in the second half en-route to an overall game mark of 45.5 percent (25-for-55).
• Colgate attempted a single-game program record 42 three-pointers.
• The Raiders made 15 treys, the most since Dec. 30, 2016 in a win over Lafayette.
• BC finished the game with a 41-38 rebound advantage.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel

• "Obviously we are disappointed in the result. We put ourselves in a great situation to be up 17 early in the second half, but couldn't make the plays necessary to respond to their adjustments."
• "I thought their playing without a center and playing a 3/4 court zone trap effectively changed the tempo and ultimately caused us to play without the aggressive rhythm that helped us get the lead."

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders return home to host Ivy League foe Columbia Saturday.
• Tipoff from Cotterell Court is set for 2 p.m.