HAMILTON – Colgate started the second half with a 23-2 run to pull away from Loyola 78-55 in the Patriot League opener Wednesday night at Cotterell Court.
After holding a five-point lead (32-27) at halftime, Colgate shot the lights out in the second half and outscored Loyola 46-28 over the final 20 minutes.
Braeden Smith scored 11 of his team-high 16 after halftime to lead the second-half burst.
COACH LANGEL COMMENTS
"It's every coach's goal to prepare your team for conference play. Tonight was the first one. We played an incredibly difficult non-conference schedule. We learned a lot about ourselves for good and for bad, but when you go about a month without a win, there's some doubt among the group. You could see some of that doubt in the first half of this game. I credit our group in preparation. We had some hard practices this week.
"Our front-court was a big part of us playing with force in the second half. Our defense led to offense and that's where we've always been at our best. To get that going was good. Scoring was balanced, which is how we're going to be at our best. Good start to Patriot League play and now we go on a long trip for the next biggest game of the year – at Navy on Saturday."
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Raiders led 32-27 at halftime before coming out of the locker room in a different gear. Colgate scored 20 unanswered points in its 23-2 run, connecting on 8-of-13 from the field. Six different Raiders scored during the run, led by six points from Nicolas Louis-Jacques and five from Smith, ballooning a six-point game to a 55-29 lead with 11:54 remaining.
Loyola was 0-for-10 from the field during Colgate's big burst. Deon Perry, who scored a game-high 25 points, had the Greyhounds' only points of the second half until a driving layup by Golden Dike brought the score to 57-34 with 10:51 left in the game.
Colgate's lead grew to 27 points after 3-pointers from Parker Jones and Chandler Baker. The Raiders shot 57.6 percent in the second half and 50 percent for the game in pulling away for the league-opening victory.
Smith paced the Raiders with 16 points on 6-of-12 from the field to go with six rebounds and four assists. Louis-Jacques (14) and Sam Thomson (10) also finished in double figures, while Keegan Records and Brady Cummins both scored nine. Cummins' seven boards led the team.
Colgate and Loyola were both shooting over 60 percent from the field eight minutes into the game. The Raiders were 8-for-12, including six points and a steal from Smith, who helped Colgate hold a slim 18-16 edge at the under-12 media timeout.
Loyola used a three-point play from Perry to battle back and his driving layup gave the visitors a 23-22 advantage. Colgate immediately responded with a 9-0 run, led by four points from Smith, to take a 31-23 advantage after two free throws from Cummins.
Defensive efforts slowed the pace in the final stage of the first half. Baker's last-second three was off the mark and Colgate held a 32-27 lead at halftime. Colgate's big second-half run stretched the lead to double-digits the rest of the way.
UP NEXT
Colgate (7-7, 1-0 PL) heads to Annapolis, Md., for a 1 p.m. tip-off against Navy on Saturday.
