BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Third-seeded Lehigh broke a 53-53 tie with a 14-5 run before holding off the sixth-seeded Raiders down the stretch as Colgate dropped a 77-72 final in the Patriot League Quarterfinals Thursday night.
 
Patriot League Rookie of the Year Will Rayman led Colgate with 20 points. Juniors Tom Rivard and Sean O'Brien both chipped in 15. Before the game, Colgate Vice President and Director of Athletics Victoria M. Chun and Patriot League Executive Director Jennifer Heppel presented Rayman with his Patriot League Rookie of the Year Award. 
 
Points were at a premium early. The Raiders kept Lehigh off the scoreboard for the opening 3:51 – Mountain Hawks missed their first six shots – and yet Colgate led just 3-0 before Mountain Hawks center Tim Kempton hit a corner three to tie it.
 
It was 3-3 at the first media timeout.
 
Kempton, in fact, scored Lehigh's first nine points but it was Colgate in front 13-9 after the Raiders put together a 10-3 run. Rayman connected twice from downtown and O'Brien hit a spinning jumper in the paint to spark the early cushion.
 
Lehigh sprinted into the lead on Cohen's fade-away jumper that made it 16-15 with 7:38 showing, and it was still 23-22 Mountain Hawks four and a half minutes before halftime after Tom Rivard and Lehigh's Austin Price traded threes.
 
Then what could have been a big momentum play for Lehigh instead turned in Colgate's favor.
 
The officials whistled Nathan Harries for a Flagrant 1 foul on Kempton with 3:55 showing. But Kempton missed both free throws and the Raiders then forced a poor shot on the ensuing out-of-bounds play. Rivard went baseline for a layup and Colgate turned it into a 9-0 run for a 31-23 advantage with 1:28 showing.
 
Lehigh had the last word of the half, however. Brandon Alston's jumper and Price's corner 3-ball sandwiched around an untimely Raiders turnover allowed the Mountain Hawks to close on a 9-2 surge and pull within 33-32 at the break.
 
Out of the locker room, the teams traded leads until Rivard's layup pushed the Raiders in front 37-36 with 17:42 showing. Colgate stayed in front by the slimmest of margins until Rayman pulled up for an eight-footer that dropped as he was fouled. The ensuing free throw made it 48-43 Colgate with 14:40 on the clock.
 
The Raiders missed a chance to pad their 50-49 lead with 11:28 remaining. Lehigh's Kempton was whistled for both a personal foul and a technical foul – giving him four fouls for the game.
 
But O'Brien went 1-of-2 on the technical and Jordan Swopshire missed both ends of his two-shot opportunity. Kahron Ross then scored four in a row to spark Lehigh to an 8-2 spurt and a 57-53 lead with 9:32 to play.
 
A long 3-pointer from Kyle Leufroy and Ross' arching jumper handed Lehigh its largest lead of the game at 62-56 with 7:55 showing. It soon went to nine when Price swished a three from the left wing for a 67-58 margin with 5:42 to play.
 
Kempton returned with 4:39 – the Mountain Hawks outscored Colgate 18-8 over a 6:49 span with the big man on the bench – and he scored from close range for a 69-60 Lehigh lead with 3:51 left.
 
Colgate narrowed the lead to 71-66 with 51 seconds to play when Francisco Amiel knocked down a 3-pointer and Rayman added a free throw. But Lehigh free throws closed it out and Rayman's 3-pointer at the buzzer resulted in the final five-point margin.
 
The Raiders – who twice lost by double-digits to Lehigh in the regular season – displayed their best effort against the third-seeded Mountain Hawks. But it couldn't prevent a seventh straight Patriot League Tournament quarterfinal road loss.
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Lehigh 77, Colgate 72

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• Lehigh improves to 19-11. The Mountain Hawks are set to take on No. 2 Boston University in Sunday's Semifinals.
• Colgate finishes the season at 10-22 overall. The Raiders finished league play at 8-10.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• Rayman's 20 points mark his seventh 20-plus point effort of the season. He wraps up his first-year campaign with 23 double-digit scoring games.
• O'Brien notched his 21st double-figure performance, while Rivard added his eighth.
• Regisford led the team with eight rebounds, while O'Brien dished a team-best six assists.
• The Raiders dropped just their second game all year when leading at half time.
• Colgate's season highlights include wins over No. 2 Boston University and No. 4 Navy. The Raiders swept Army West Point and earned the program's first-ever sweep over Loyola.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• The Raiders finished the game shooting 46.4 percent (26-for-56) from the field, 42.1 percent (8-for-19) from three-point range and 60.0 percent (12-for-20) from the free throw line.
• The Mountain Hawks shot 47.1 percent (24-for-51) from the floor, 42.1 percent (8-for-19) from downtown and 80.8 percent (21-for-26) from the charity stripe.
• Colgate controlled a 35-29 rebound edge.
• Price led Lehigh with 27 points. Kempton finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel

• "This was the kind of game you can expect in March. Everyone's back is against the wall and its win or go home. Our guys were locked into the game plan and executed the game plan in large chunks. The way we finished the first half was unfortunate, but we kept fighting in the second half."
• "Kempton was out of the game with four fouls for a little bit, but they have other strong players who stepped up and rallied the troops. When you're a senior like Kempton and Price, who lost the way they did last year at home, you know those guys are going to step up and be ready to go."
• "I'm proud of my guys for our effort, the way we played the game and approached the game. I think that we can certainly build on it moving forward."
• "The guys we return next year are certainly talented and have shown that they can play with the best teams in the league. We return just about everybody who played significant minutes for us, but we have to get a few keys areas remedied and be more consistent if we want to be a better team."