HAMILTON – Brady Cummins' go-ahead layup with 4:34 left in regulation gave Colgate the lead for good in a tight 60-57 victory over Lehigh on Monday night at Cotterell Court.
COACH LANGEL'S COMMENTS
"I want to give Coach Reed and his team credit. They had a good game plan and I want to be sure to recognize that. They're down two really good, experienced players. They stepped up, made shots, and got to the foul line. We did not make shots. Hopefully we can learn through this that we have to be better. I like our team a lot. We have a talented group of guys but I'm not sure we're doing things with the urgency that's necessary. Bright notes for sure, but we can take another step and we have to if we're going to be the team that we can be.
"The crowds here the last two nights have been fantastic. Energy is a huge part of college basketball. Now that campus is starting to come back to life, it's exciting. I hope we can play a brand of basketball that will get people to keep coming back. Our fans have been a huge part of our history – the last half dozen years when we've won in January and February to get to March. We're working hard but we need everybody's help. Hopefully people keep coming out to support the group and have a good time doing it."
HOW IT HAPPENED
After a back-and-forth second half with the lead and momentum changing hands multiple times, Cummins scored four of Colgate's final six points, including another contested layup to make the score 60-57 with 2:45 left in regulation.
Neither team scored again. Colgate survived four straight three-point misses from Lehigh, including the potential tying shot at the buzzer that fell short. Keegan Records hauled in the rebound as time expired and the Raiders held on for their fourth straight win.
Nicolas Louis-Jacques was Colgate's lone double-figure scorer with 12 points on four 3-pointers. Records scored nine points and hauled in nine rebounds. Ryan Moffatt finished with nine points, eight rebounds, and five assists. Braeden Smith was held to just two points but contributed on both ends of the floor with eight assists and eight rebounds.
Lehigh led for large portions of the first half before Colgate closed the half on a 10-0 burst with triples from Cummins, Moffatt, and Louis-Jacques. A Lehigh missed layup with three seconds left allowed Colgate to push the floor, and Louis-Jacques swished the 3-pointer as time expired to give the Raiders a 36-30 lead at halftime.
Both teams traded shots the entire second half. Colgate's lead never grew larger than eight but never shrunk to less than five until Lehigh found a 7-0 run to take a 55-54 lead with 5:05 left in regulation.
Cummins' layup on Colgate's next possession put the Raiders back in front for good, and the defense held down the stretch to pull off the three-point victory.
Colgate shot 39.3 percent from the field and 26.7 percent from three-point range. The Raiders were just 4-of-11 (36.4%) from the free throw line to Lehigh's 17-of-24 (70.8%). The Mountain Hawks shot 31.6 overall including 17.4 percent from behind the arc.
GAME NOTES
- Ryan Moffatt became the program's 40th member of the 1,000-point club with his layup in the final minutes of regulation. He joins Keegan Records as active members of the team to have reached the milestone.
- Keegan Records passed Jack Ferguson '22 and Darren Brown '93 to move into 17th on the program's all-time scoring chart with 1,254 career points.
UP NEXT
Colgate (12-8, 6-1 PL) heads to the nation's capital for a battle against American on Saturday afternoon. Tip-off from Bender Arena is set for 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
