FORT MYERS, Fla. – Colgate used strong shooting and tight defense to topple Florida Gulf Coast 74-56 in a balanced victory Sunday afternoon inside Alico Arena.
 
Jordan Burns led Colgate with 19 points and added six assists and six boards in the win. Rapolas Ivanauskas posted his sixth double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Will Rayman got back to double-figures with 11 points and tallied four rebounds.
 
A layup from Burns gave Colgate an early 12-10 lead and the Raiders never trailed again. A long three-pointer from Ivanauskas sparked a quick 7-0 scoring run to stretch Colgate's lead to 23-15 midway through the opening half.
 
After a quick bucket from FGCU, the Raiders scored five more unanswered points, highlighted by another trey from Rayman to open the Raiders' advantage to 30-17. FGCU struck the final basket of the first half, but Colgate owned an 11-point advantage at the break, 30-19.
 
Tucker Richardson ignited an 8-2 scoring run for Colgate with a trey from the left wing to extend Colgate's margin to 17 points at 40-23 just under three minutes into the second frame. Consecutive layups from Dana Batt and Malcolm Regisford in the paint opened a 20-point lead for the Raiders, 48-28.
 
Jack Ferguson buried his first trey with 6:28 left in regulation and Ivanauskas followed with a layup underneath to push Colgate's lead to a game-high 31 points.
 
FGCU closed the margin to 15 points with a layup by Dinero Mercurius with just over two minutes remaining, but the Raiders shut the door with Burns landing a pair of free throws to give the game its final score, 74-56.
 
BOTTOM LINE
• Colgate 74, FGCU 56
 
FOR THE RECORD
• Colgate improved to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in road games this season.
• Florida Gulf Coast fell to 2-8 after the loss.

FROM THE SOURCE
• Colgate head coach Matt Langel: 

"I was extremely proud of our determination and discipline coming off a tough loss Friday night and a quick turnaround today. We were locked in on defense and shared the ball extremely well."

KEY RAIDER NOTES
• This is Colgate's first win over an Atlantic Sun Conference opponent since defeating NJIT on Dec. 12, 2017.
• Colgate finished with seven blocks, its most against a Division I opponent this season.
• The Raiders led for nearly 38 of the 40 minutes in the contest.
• Burns paced Colgate with six made field goals, finishing 6-of-15 from the floor overall.
• Richardson and Burns led the way with a pair of three-pointers apiece.

BY THE NUMBERS
• Colgate shot 45 percent (26-of-58) from the field and 37 percent (7-of-19) from long range.
• The Raiders held FGCU to just 19 percent (5-of-26) from beyond the arc and 32 percent (23-of-71) from the field.
• Total rebounds finished 42-41 in favor of Colgate.  
 
UP NEXT
• Colgate continues its six-game road trip at Columbia on Wednesday with tip-off from New York set for 7 p.m.