WORCESTER, Mass. – Colgate's first road win of the season came in the away game that carried the most value yet as the Raiders opened Patriot League play with a 79-74 victory at Holy Cross Friday night.
Colgate used a 24-10 run during a nine-minute second half stretch to turn a four-point deficit into a 10-point lead. The Raiders then held off a late Holy Cross charge to secure Colgate's first win in Worcester since the 2010-11 season.
Senior
Jordan Swopshire led the way with a season-best 22 points, 19 of which came in the second half. Sophomore
Will Rayman narrowly missed a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds, while first-year
Jordan Burns added 12 points and junior
Malcolm Regisford tallied 10.
Colgate opened the game with back-to-back three-pointers from Swopshire and Burns, but Holy Cross scored the next seven points to take a 7-6 lead just over three minutes into the game. The game was tied at 10 with under 15 on the clock before threes from Rayman and Burns and a layup from junior
Dana Batt helped Colgate pull ahead 18-14 with 13:02 to play.
Colgate's lead reached six at 26-20 following another Rayman trey, but Holy Cross answered right back to knot the score at 26-26 at the 7:40 mark. A beautifully crisp pass from Burns found senior
Jordan Robertson as a perfectly executed alley-oop capped off an 8-3 Raider run to put Colgate up 34-29 with just under four minutes left in the term.
The Crusaders answered with seven of the half's final nine points, however, as the teams went into halftime deadlocked at 36-36.
Swopshire scored seven of the Raiders' first 10 points of the second half, but the score was still tied at 46 at the first media timeout of the term. The Crusaders pulled ahead by four at 53-49 as the clock wound under 11.
Four-straight points from Batt and three-pointers from Swopshire and Burns comprised a 10-3 Raider run that helped Colgate take back the lead at 59-56 with 8:34 left to play. The Crusaders pulled within one after a layup, but it would prove to be as close as they would get the rest of the way.
Swopshire drained a three before O'Brien snatched a steal and converted a fast-break layup to spark a 13-4 Raider run. The streak was capped off by a Burns trey at the 3:01 mark that put the score at 72-63 in favor of Colgate.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Austin Butler allowed the Crusaders to claw back within three points in the final minute, but a Swopshire dunk with 16 seconds to play all but sealed Colgate's 79-74 league-opening victory.
BOTTOM LINE
- Colgate 79, Holy Cross 74
WON-LOST RECORDS
- Colgate improves to 6-6 on the season with its third-straight win. The Raiders open Patriot League play with a victory for the fourth-straight season.
- Holy Cross drops to 3-9 overall and 0-1 in league action.
KEY RAIDER INFO
- Swopshire's 22 points came off an 8-for-13 showing from the field and 4-for-7 effort from three-point range. He added six rebounds.
- Rayman finished 5-for-11 from the field. He pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, five of which were offensive boards.
- All 12 of Burns' points came from his 4-for-6 effort from downtown. The rookie dished a team-best five assists.
- Regisford tallied his third-straight double-digit effort with 10 points. He was 4-for-5 from the field.
- O'Brien chipped in nine points, while both Batt added eight in the balanced Colgate attack.
FACTS & FIGURES
- Colgate finished the game shooting 50.8 percent (30-for-59) from the field, highlighted by a 53.3 percent (16-for-30) second-half clip.
- The Raiders were 48.1 percent (13-for-27) from three-point range and 6-for-9 from the free throw line.
- Colgate held Holy Cross to a 49.2 percent (30-for-61) clip from the floor and 37.9 percent (11-for-29) mark from downtown.
- The Raiders held a 37-27 rebound edge. Colgate scored 18 second-chance points off 12 offensive boards.
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach
Matt Langel
- "I'm proud of the group for winning on the road to start league play. I think any team in any league that does that is happy. It's really nice for our seniors to get a win in this building."
- "Our defense struggled during stretches, but it was nice to see them find a way to win on the road. Winning on the road is hard, and I think if we're a little more disciplined we can do better the next time out."
- "The schedule is a little fortunate in that our first two opponents (Holy Cross and American) both play a similar style of basketball. We'll see a lot of pressure on both ends of the floor and we'll have to adjust to that and do a little better than we did with that tonight."
UP NEXT
- Colgate remains on the road and will head to American Tuesday for another Patriot League battle.
- Tipoff of the Jan. 2nd contest is slated for 7 p.m. from Washington, D.C.
