HAMILTON – Colgate nudged and clawed its way into solo sixth place here Saturday with a hard-fought 76-62 triumph over Loyola.
 
The Raiders ended the game on a 17-4 flurry after Loyola nearly had erased a 12-point third quarter deficit.
 
But after consecutive 3-pointers to open the fourth period pulled Loyola within 59-58 with still 7:25 remaining, Colgate clamped down on both ends of the floor. The Greyhounds made just one of their last 13 field goal attempts and six different Raiders added to their point totals during that closing stretch.
 
Colgate with the win gained a much-needed split of the season series against Loyola.
 
That may prove decisive as the Patriot League schedule shows just three games remaining, and Colgate now claims the upper hand to steer clear of a first-round 7-10 or 8-9 matchup in the postseason conference tourney. The Raiders lead both Loyola and Holy Cross by one game in the race for sixth and own a combined 3-1 record against those team should a tiebreaker be necessary.
 
Kateri Stone led Colgate in scoring for the fifth straight game, finishing with 17. Summer King added a career-high 15 points and Rachel Thompson grabbed 16 rebounds for the team's best showing in that category all season.
 
Loyola freshman Molly Taylor tried her darndest to keep the Greyhounds close, making six of her first seven 3-point attempts on her way to a season-high 19 points.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 76, Loyola 62
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate improved to 9-17 overall and 6-9 in the Patriot League.
• Loyola lost its sixth straight game, falling to 9-17 and 5-10.
 
Quick Recap
• Chelsey Koren scored six of her nine points in the first quarter as Colgate opened a 20-16 lead.
• Stone tallied seven points and King six in the second. King's jumper in the closing ticks put the Raiders in front 43-32 at halftime.
• After Steph Poland's layup made it 49-37 Raiders with 7:19 to play in the third, Loyola began working its way back into the game.
• An 11-4 Greyhounds run closed it to five before Mylah Chandler came up with a big offensive rebound and putback with 2:31 showing for a 55-48 Raiders edge.
• It was still seven points, 59-52, heading to the fourth period.
• Lisa Mirachi and Maria Kilcullen knocked down consecutive 3-pointers and suddenly Loyola trailed just 59-58 with 7½ minutes left.
• But after a Colgate timeout, Chandler followed her own miss with a tipped offensive rebound to Stone and the junior's corner trey began the finishing kick.
• Thompson followed her own miss to make it 67-60, and then King put one back with 2:18 remaining as part of an 8-0 run that made it 73-60.
• Thompson, meanwhile, had set up shop in the Loyola paint. She grabbed 11 of her 16 boards after the break – nine on the defensive end – as Colgate limited Loyola to just eight second-chance points.
• Last month in Loyola's 87-77 win over the Raiders, the Greyhounds posted a 24-5 edge in second-chance points.
 
Facts & Figures
• Colgate for the fourth time this season halted a season-long losing streak at three.
• The Raiders finished just 5-of-18 on 3-pointers but scored 46 of their 76 points in the paint.
• King missed a double-double by one rebound, finishing with 15 and nine.
• Thompson was two points shy of a double-double.
• Saturday marked the second straight year that a Raider grabbed 16 rebounds to spark a Senior Day win. Josie Stockill did it last year against Lafayette, and now Thompson against Loyola.
• Katie Curtis on Senior Day tied her career high with six assists – against zero turnovers.
• The Raiders average 17.7 turnovers. But in their last five games, the numbers are 11, 16, 12, 12 and now a season-low 10 against Loyola.
• Colgate improved to 6-5 at home.
• Seventy points continues to be a pretty good Raiders barometer for wins and losses. Colgate improved to 6-3 when scoring at least 70; the Raiders are 7-3 when allowing fewer than 70.
• Three games remain. But if the season ended today, Colgate's overall winning percentage of .346 would be the program's best since the 2004-05 squad finished 12-18 for .400.
 
From the Source
• Colgate assistant coach Mahogany Green: (On the game) "It was a great win and a great way to send our seniors out. We had a great crowd. We came out and set the tone early. Then we fell asleep for a second, but the great thing was we recovered. For us, that's growth. It's something we've struggled with all year and we were able to close out the game in an emphatic way.
 
"It made our kids feel confident going into our next couple of games, so we were very pleased with our team today."
 
Listen to the rest of Coach Green's comments HERE.
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Curtis and Poland were honored by their teammates and joined by family members during Senior Day festivities before tipoff.
• Attendance at Cotterell Court was 718.
 
Up Next
• Colgate hosts Lehigh for the final regular season home game. It's the first of two upcoming meetings against the Mountain Hawks over the closing eight days.
• The Mountain Hawks are 9-17 overall and 4-11 in conference after Saturday's 69-60 home win over Lafayette.
• Lehigh leads the series 37-25, but the teams have split their season matchups each of the last three years. Colgate won twice at home and once on the road in that span.
• Tipoff from Cotterell Court is 7 p.m.

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