SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Colgate women's basketball team provided Raider fans with reason to cheer early on in Sunday's game against the Orange, coming out to a fast start under the bright lights of the Carrier Dome. 

Colgate scored the first four points of the game on layups by Jenna Paul and Alexa Naessens. Naessens scored on another layup, Paul hit a pair of three-pointers, Taylor Golembiewski drained a three of her own, Alexa Brodie sank one of two foul shots, and Golembiewski took advantage of two free throws, and Syracuse had the narrow edge on the Raiders, 22-18, at the end of the first quarter. 

That would be as close a margin the Raiders would see for the rest of the afternoon. In the second quarter, Golembiewski made an inspiring play, grabbing an offensive rebound and taking it all the way down the floor for a layup. Morgan Frank drilled a three and Brodie hit a floating jumper off the glass. Colgate was outscored 21-7 in the second quarter behind 18.8% field goal shooting, and connected on just 1-10 from three-point range. The Raiders went into the locker room down 43-25 at the half. 

Golembiewski scored Colgate's first bucket of the third quarter going end to end for a layup. Two plays later, she followed it up with a jumper. After an 8-0 Syracuse run, with the shot clock winding down, Brodie showed patience and found her shot in the form of another floating jumper. Frank followed with a pull-up jumper, Ariel Loiter nailed a three from the corner, and Tiasia McMillan hit one of two free throws to round out the Raiders' scoring in the third stanza. 

Colgate improved its execution in the fourth quarter, seeing its field goal percentage increase to 47.1% and hitting four of seven three-pointers, including two from Katlyn Ghavidel off the bench. The Raiders outscored the Orange 20-15 in the final period, but Syracuse had built an insurmountable lead and took the contest 79-57. 

Golembiewski finished with a team-high 13 points and Paul added 11. Syracuse's Chrislyn Carr led all scorers with 20 points.

UP NEXT
Colgate (1-5, 0-0 PL) wraps up its five-game road stretch at Siena on Thursday. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at the UHY Center in Loudonville. The Raiders return to Cotterell Court next Sunday, Dec. 5 to take on Albany at 2 p.m.