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HAMILTON – The second-seeded Colgate men's basketball team punched its ticket to Sunday's Patriot League Semifinals with a dominant 76-54 win over seventh-seeded Lafayette 76-54 Thursday night in the Patriot League Quarterfinals.
 
Colgate hosts No. 6 Holy Cross Sunday at noon in the Patriot League Semifinals at Cotterell Court. The Crusaders upset third-seeded Navy 81-65 in Thursday's quarterfinal round. Tickets are available for purchase HERE and the CBS Sports Network is televising the game nationally. The winner advances to Wednesday's Patriot League Championship game.
 
The Raiders are making their first semifinal appearance since the 2014-15 season. With the quarterfinal win, the Raiders are now 18-12 overall and tie a program record for wins in a season.
 
Senior Sean O'Brien led the Raiders with a game-high 18 points. Sophomore Will Rayman recorded his fourth double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds. First-year Jordan Burns added 12 points, while junior Dana Batt chipped in 11 in the strong team effort.
 
The game started close as the score was knotted at 15-15 just over seven minutes into the opening half. Layups from four different Raiders then sparked an 11-3 Colgate run over the next nine minutes. A basket from junior Sam Lindgren ignited the streak that saw Colgate hold the Leopards scoreless for more than seven minutes and gave the Raiders a 26-17 lead with 3:57 left on the clock.
 
The Leopards pulled back within four at 31-27 three minutes later thanks to a 10-5 run. Rayman hit a clutch three-pointer with 42 seconds on the clock before Burns buried one of his own in the final seconds to give the Raiders a 37-27 lead at the break.
 
Colgate held onto an eight- to 10-point lead in the opening six minutes of the second half until an O'Brien trey and four points from Rayman gave the Raiders a 15-point cushion at 51-36 with 11:11 left to play.
 
A three-pointer from senior Jordan Swopshire kicked off a 9-0 run at the 10:26 mark to stretch the Raider lead all the way to 25 at 65-40 with the clock down to 5:44. Lafayette was never able to recover as the Raiders cruised to the 76-54 victory.
 
BOTTOM LINE

• Colgate 76, Lafayette 54

 
WON-LOST RECORDS

• The Raiders improve to 18-12 on the season, tying their season win record that was previously set by the 1992-93 and 2007-08 teams.
• Lafayette's season comes to a close a 10-21.

 
KEY RAIDER INFO

• The Raiders are playing in their second Patriot League Semifinal under 2018 Patriot League Coach of the Year Matt Langel.
• Colgate needs just one more win to set a program record for victories in a season (19).
• The Raiders are 12-3 at home this year, setting a Cotterell Court record for wins in a season. The program record is 13 home wins, set by the 1926-27 team.
• Colgate bounced back to beat the Leopards after Lafayette swept the two regular-season meetings 71-68 and 93-83. The Raiders snapped a three-game losing streak to the Leopards with the victory.
• The Raiders tie a season-high win streak with their fourth-straight win.
• O'Brien and Swopshire were honored prior to tipoff for scoring their 1,000th career points in recent games.
• Langel received his Patriot League Coach of the Year trophy prior to tipoff.
• O'Brien shot 7-for-11 from the field en route to his game-high 18 points.
• Rayman's double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds was aided by a perfect 6-for-6 showing from the free throw line.
• Burns was 2-for-2 from three-point range in his 12-point effort. He added a game-high four assists with no turnovers.
• Batt pulled down seven rebounds in addition to his 11 points.
• Swopshire finished with nine points to round out the strong team effort.

 
FACTS & FIGURES

• Colgate finished the game shooting 43.1 percent (28-for-65) from the field, 45.0 percent (9-for-20) from three-point range and 84.6 percent (11-for-13) from the free throw line.
• The Leopards shot 41.3 percent (19-for-46) from the floor, 31.6 percent (6-for-19) from downtown and 58.8 percent (10-for-17) from the charity stripe.
• Colgate controlled a dominant 44-26 rebound advantage, including a 15-3 edge on the offensive glass. The Raiders scored 15 second-chance points. 

 
UP NEXT

• The Raiders advance to Sunday's Patriot League Semifinals against Holy Cross.
• Tipoff is slated for noon from Cotterell Court and the game is being televised nationwide on CBS Sports Network.
• The winner of Sunday's Semifinal contest advances to Wednesday's Patriot League Championship game.