WASHINGTON – The Colgate men's basketball team used a strong team effort to grind out a 72-63 road win at American Tuesday night and move to 2-0 in Patriot League play.  
 
Colgate scored 16 of the game's final 24 points as the Raider defense stepped up in the final five minutes to secure the team's fourth-straight win.
 
Senior Jordan Swopshire finished with a team-best 18 points, while sophomore Will Rayman followed with 15 and first-year Jordan Burns added 14. Senior Sean O'Brien pulled down a team-high eight rebounds to go along with six assists, no turnovers, three steals and six points. 
 
Colgate made four of its first five shots to take a 9-6 lead three minutes into the game. American momentarily pulled ahead at 10-9, but Colgate answered with a 7-1 stretch over the next three minutes that was capped off by a conventional three-point play from Jordan Robertson to put the Raiders in front 16-11 with under 11 minutes left on the first-half clock.
 
The Eagles stayed within three to five points for the next few minutes until five unanswered Colgate points put the Raider advantage at seven at 28-21 with 4:10 to play. The Colgate defense held the Eagles to just one made field goal in the final six minutes of the first half. A three-pointer from first-year Jack Ferguson stretched the lead to eight before American made two free throws to end the opening term as Colgate carried a 31-25 lead into halftime.
 
The Eagles opened the second half on an 8-2 run to tie the score at 33-33 less than three minutes until the term. The lead changed hands three times in the next four minutes before a layup from Burns sparked a 9-0 Colgate streak that turned a 45-42 deficit into a 51-45 lead following another Swopshire trey at the 11:05 mark.
 
American worked its way back within one following five points from Sa'eed Nelson that trimmed Colgate's lead to 56-55 with just over five minutes to play. Five points from Burns and a Rayman layup helped Colgate answer with a 7-2 run over the next two minutes to five the Raiders a six-point edge at 63-57 with 3:32 left on the clock.
 
With the Eagles back within three at 63-60, Burns answered with two big baskets to put the Colgate lead at seven with 1:54 to play. It would prove to be enough as the Raider defense and free throw shooting took control the rest of the way. Colgate forced three American turnovers and went 5-for-7 from the free throw line in the final two minutes to close out the 72-63 win.
 
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Colgate 72, American 63

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• The Raiders improve to 2-0 in the Patriot League and 7-6 on the season with Colgate's fourth-straight win. Colgate is now 4-17 all-time against American on the road.
• American drops to 3-10 overall and 0-2 in league action.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• Swopshire led the Colgate scoring for the second-straight game with his 18-point performance. He shot 7-for-12 from the field and added five rebounds.
• Rayman tallied 15 points and seven rebounds. He finished 5-for-6 from the field.
• Burns notched 14 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Ten of those points came in the final five minutes as Colgate closed in on the victory.
• O'Brien's eight rebounds tied his career high. He entered the game with the third-best assist to turnover ratio (5.11) in all of Division I and lived up to his mark with six assists and no turnovers.
• Robertson tallied eight points on 3-of-5 shooting.
• All nine Raiders that saw action scored.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• Colgate finished the game shooting 50.9 percent (27-for-53) from the field, highlighted by a 62.5 percent (15-for-24) second-half clip.
• The Raiders were 33.3 percent (6-for-18) from three-point range and 63.2 percent (12-for-19) from the free throw line.
• American finished 45.7 percent (21-for-46) from the floor, 40.9 percent (9-for-22) from deep and 75.0 percent (12-for-16) from the charity stripe.
• The Eagles held a slim 31-27 rebound edge.
• Colgate scored 32 points in the paint compared to American's 18.
• The Raiders added 25 points off 18 American turnovers.

 
FROM THE SOURCE
Head Coach Matt Langel

• "This is always a hard game to play. It's a long trip coming off not that much rest at a difficult time of the year. They play a slow system with a Princeton offense and it's hard to stay locked in. I was proud of the way our guys grinded it out."
• "Sean O'Brien was our guts tonight with six assists, no turnovers, eight rebounds and three steals. That's really a winning performance."
• "Will Rayman got 15 points on just six field goal attempts. Swopshire's offense helped us a ton early and Burns' offense helped us a ton late."
• "There were a lot of winning plays. Jordan Robertson made a few big first-half plays and Francisco Amiel played great second-half defense. There were great plays from several guys that don't necessarily show up in the stat sheet that I'm very proud of."

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders return home to make their Patriot League debut at Cotterell Court Friday.
• Colgate will put its 5-0 home record on the line against Lafayette.
• Tipoff from Cotterell Court is slated for 7 p.m.