HAMILTON, N.Y. – Add another milestone for head coach
Matt Langel, and this one puts him at the top of the list.
Colgate's fifth straight win came in dramatic fashion Wednesday night, as Langel became the program's all-time winningest coach with his 166th career victory at the helm.
Langel, in his 11th season, passes Emmett Davis (1999, 2011), who coached the Raiders to 165 career victories over 13 seasons.
The historic moments keep coming for Langel and the Raiders, who in the past five seasons have scored the program's first two 20-win seasons, back-to-back regular season championships, and a pair of NCAA tournament appearances.
Langel is the only coach in Patriot League history to three-peat the Coach of the Year honor (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20).
"Thank you for the congratulations and I appreciate everybody reaching out," Langel said.
"The story for me is this team and this group at this moment. We've had a lot of adversity to fight through and we've banded together in the process. We've got a number of games left and we're trying to accomplish what we set out to do.
"That being said I'm super humbled and thankful for so many things – the institution, the leadership. To have a president who is as supportive and an athletics director as supportive as they are to allow us to do what we need to do as a coaching staff, to have the coaching staff that I've been able to have and their commitment to build what we've been able to build. I can't do enough to thank them for what it means to me and this program.
"Players win games. This is a players' game. We've been fortunate enough to recruit quality guys who are talented and who have improved during their time here, but never has it been about them. They're team-first guys who have embraced that mentality and been a part of the culture and passed that on down the line. As nice as it is to have someone say you're the all-time anything, I'm really proud to have all of those things as part of my life."
Wednesday's milestone win was fast from the get go with both team trading buckets. Colgate broke away for good when
Oliver Lynch-Daniels swished a second-chance trey in an 8-2 spurt to push the Raiders in front 26-22 midway through the first half.
The defense was working and the lead stretched to 33-22 after a
Keegan Records rejection turned into a transition 3-pointer for
Jack Ferguson. Lehigh shot back with seven straight points before Colgate responded once more and a Records bucket made it 41-32 at the break.
Colgate's lead just kept growing and growing in the second half and reached as many as 24 points after back-to-back three-point plays from
Sam Thomson and
Jeff Woodward made it 74-50 with 6:29 showing on the clock.
Records took over down the stretch and reserves once again played key minutes to coast Colgate to the finish line with the 78-62 victory.
The Raiders' recent stretch of perimeter precision was a touch off the mark, but it didn't matter with 42 points coming from the paint including 13 from Records.
Nelly Cummings paced the scoring with 19 points on 8-of-16 from the field and
Tucker Richardson scored 17.
Records put together another complete performance, finishing with six rebounds and four blocked shots. Richardson added a team-best eight rebounds and two steals in the win.
Colgate shot 54.5% (30-of-55) from the field and 25% (4-of-16) from behind the arc, won the battle on the glass 36-32, and outscored Lehigh in points off turnovers 16-9.
Head Coach Matt Langel on the game:
"This was a great team win.
Keegan Records was 5-for-5 from the field and his defense has really come around. He's helping other people and he's battling with the big guys. Our team defense was really good. We shared the ball well and took advantage of what was there. We didn't shoot great, but we still got ourselves a really nice lead and then extended it in the second half. I was really proud of the group effort."
UP NEXT
Colgate (13-11, 9-2 Patriot) is back on the road Saturday to face Loyola at 5 p.m. before hosting Lafayette next Monday at 6 p.m. Both games can be streamed live on ESPN+.
