SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Syracuse led for only 1:26 of game time but that was enough to overcome a 24-point second-half deficit in a 79-75 decision over Colgate on Tuesday inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
Colgate had everything working with sights set on its third consecutive win over Syracuse after building a 24-point second-half lead. The Raiders led by 16 at halftime and scored the first eight points of the second stanza after Jeff Woodward's layup made it 54-30 with 16:32 to go.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Syracuse outscored Colgate 49-21 over the final 16 minutes, including a late 14-0 run that turned an eight-point deficit into a four-point victory. The home team's full-court press gave the Raiders trouble, forcing 14 second-half turnovers.
"Credit to Coach Autry's group for fighting to do whatever they could to get back in the game," said head coach Matt Langel after the loss. "Disappointing for us to not get the result after positioning ourselves so well in the first half."
Despite the second-half struggles, Colgate was clinging to an eight-point lead, 70-62, when Nicolas Louis-Jacques sank a 16-footer with 3:25 showing.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Justin Taylor and Chris Bell, who made six treys en route to a game-high 25 points, ignited a 14-0 burst and gave the Orange a 72-70 lead with 1:07 left – their first lead since the score was 3-0. Maliq Brown capped the run with four straight points.
Louis-Jacques connected on a 3-pointer to cut the margin to 76-73, but the Orange hit their free throws in the final minute to preserve the comeback victory.
Keegan Records recorded his eighth career double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. Braeden Smith was two assists shy of a triple-double, finishing with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists. Ryan Moffatt (12) and Louis-Jacques (10) were also in double-figures.
Colgate started red-hot from distance, knocking down its first four attempts from behind the arc. Moffatt drained two, and Louis-Jacques and Smith each had one to help Colgate jump out to a 16-9 lead at the 15:09 mark of the first half.
Syracuse twice pulled within two points but Colgate answered each time, including a late 15-2 surge led by the Raiders' lethal three-point barrage. Records, Chandler Baker, and Jalen Cox all buried treys down the stretch to balloon Colgate's lead to 46-30 at halftime.
Colgate's big men took charge early in the second half, with four points each from Woodward and Records in an 8-0 run to stretch the lead to 54-30 at the 16-minute mark.
Bell had the hot hand for the Orange, draining a pair of treys and finishing a layup in a 14-3 run that brought the home team back within 57-44 at the 12-minute mark.
Syracuse turned to its full-court pressure for most of the second half, turning the tables in the final minutes to overcome the deficit and snap Colgate's two-game win streak in the Dome.
"I don't want to take lightly what it means to come in and compete in a close game against a storied program that has a national championship to its name," Langel said.
"The reality is my focus as the coach of this team is to help us get better faster, grow up quicker, and be more mature. That's what we've been working on, but I haven't been doing a good enough job. That showed in the result of today's game. Hopefully this is a difficult, but worth-wile lesson for our group to learn because we've got a challenging road ahead of us."
UP NEXT
Colgate heads to Moncton, New Brunswick, for three games in three days as part of the Atlantic Slam Nov. 17-19. The Raiders open the weekend tournament against Yale at 6 p.m. ET on Friday. All three games this weekend will be streamed live on ESPN+.
