HAMILTON – Freshman
Keegan Records scored a career-high 12 points to lead four Raiders in double figures and Colgate used a strong second half to surge past Cornell 66-58 on Wednesday night at Cotterell Court.
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Records' 12 points came on 6-of-8 shooting and he led the Raiders on the glass with nine rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench.
Jordan Burns,
Nelly Cummings, and
Tucker Richardson all finished with 10 points. Burns chipped in with a game-high four assists in the win.
Colgate (7-4) came in ranked sixth in the country in 3-pointers per game (10.8), but grinded out a win despite shooting 6-of-21 (28.6%) from beyond the arc. The Raiders trailed by as many as 11 in the first half before carving the deficit down to 38-33 at intermission.
Cornell (1-8) scored the first six points of the second half on a 3-of-3 start from the field to force a Colgate timeout two minutes in with the score 44-33. The Raiders outscored the Big Red 33-13 the rest of the way, powered by a 23-2 burst, to turn an 11-point deficit into a 10-point lead.
The Raiders forced six turnovers during the run and held Cornell scoreless for over eight minutes. A two-handed slam by Records off an offensive rebound was his first two of eight straight points that pulled Colgate within 44-43 midway through the half.
Richardson pulled down a defensive rebound and heaved a full-court pass to
Jack Ferguson, who got a layup to fall and was fouled on his way up. He converted the traditional three-point play and Colgate had its first lead (46-44) since it was 8-7 early in the first half.
Cornell's Terrence McBride ended the drought with a jumper inside to tie the game at 46s, but Colgate shot back with a 10-0 run to take the lead for good. Richardson buried a triple to start the spark and Ivanauskas sank two free throws on the back end to push Colgate in front 56-44.
Josh Warren scored six straight points to bring Cornell back within 61-56, but that was as close as the visitors would get. Cummings and Richardson sank three of four from the line and a last-second bucket from Rayman led the Raiders to the 66-58 victory.
Cornell (1-8) got off to a red-hot 6-of-6 start from the field and Jimmy Boeheim scored seven points inside the first six minutes to pull the Big Red out front 14-10 at the first media timeout.
Colgate was held scoreless for a long stretch and Cornell opened its lead to 21-10 before Colgate stormed back with eight straight points. Ferguson netted a trey and connected on a turnaround jumper before a two-handed slam from Records carved the deficit down to 23-20 with just over seven minutes left in the first half.
Cummings made a nice post move and banked a layup to cut the Cornell lead to 23-22, but the Big Red shot back with six straight and a layup from Boeheim had the visitors in front 29-22 with just over four minutes left in the first half.
Cummings ended the 6-0 Cornell spurt with a pair of free throws to get the Raiders back within five, and that would be the halftime deficit after Burns swished a 3-pointer on Colgate's final possession.
Cornell shot 61 percent from the floor (17-of-28) and 50 percent (4-of-8) from beyond the arc in the first half to hold a 38-33 lead at the break.
The Big Red scored the first six points of the second half before Colgate took control over the game over the final 18 minutes to secure its fourth straight victory over Cornell.
BOTTOM LINE
Colgate 66, Cornell 58
QUOTES
Head Coach Matt Langel
On the game:
"This was a really good win and important game for us tonight. Cornell's record is not great, but they have played a lot of teams close. They are a very well-coached team that is close to getting over the hump. It was not until
Ryan Moffatt came in and
Keegan Records happened to be out there that we started playing with the energy, determination, and passion you need to win college basketball. As we have tried to manage expectations, some guys have gotten away from their foundation so it was great to see some of our young guys lead the old guys tonight."
On the second-half surge:
"I credit our young guys for lighting a fire on the group. It was not a special message at halftime or any other time. To be honest, we had to call a timeout early in the second half and I asked our guys if they can tell me something. They just said we have to work harder on defense and share the ball on offense. That is what are trying to accomplish all the time."
On the sparks off the bench:
"Our young guys played hard. They are doing everything they can to work as hard every day in practice and be as good as they can. When their name does get called, they are working like crazy to impact the game. That does not mean scoring points and making highlight plays, but more just doing what the coaches ask. They played great help defense."
"We have at least six guys who have scored 20 points or more in their career. Probabaly not many teams can say that, but if we are going to be the team that we want to be, our defense has to continue to be tough. We forced a number of turnovers in the second half and that helped us."
GAME NOTES
- Colgate improved to 4-0 at home this season and has won 11 straight on Cotterell Court dating back to last season.
- The Raiders extended their winning streak against non-conference opponents at home to 12 with the win.
- Records' career-high 12 points eclipsed his previous high of 10 set against Siena.
- The freshman paced Colgate in scoring for the first time in his collegiate career.
- Colgate came in ranked sixth nationally in free throw percentage (80.0%) and matched that number with a 12-of-15 showing from the charity stripe.
- The Raiders have won four in a row against Cornell for the first time since 2001-04.
- Colgate finished with a season-low six turnovers and blocked a season-high nine shots.
- Rayman tied his career high with four blocks to lead the way.
- Fast break points finished 15-0 in favor of the Raiders.
UP NEXT
Colgate hits the road one final time during non-conference play to take on two-time defending AAC champion Cincinnati on Saturday at 7 p.m. The game will air live on Fox Sports Ohio and ESPN3 is carrying the livestream.
