HAMILTON – Seniors
Alexa Brodie and
Tiasia McMillan combined for 39 of Colgate's 77 points as the Raiders cruised to a senior night victory over Boston University at Cotterell Court on Wednesday night.
McMillan scored a career-high 21 points shooting 77 percent (10-for-13) from the floor and added five rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Brodie dropped 18 points with 50 percent (8-for-16) shooting, and Taylor Golembiewski finished with 14 points (5-for-9). Eight different Raiders were on the scoresheet Wednesday night.
Tonight's 77-40 win over Boston University is the largest margin of victory (37) over a league opponent in program history.
Colgate's second place finish in the Patriot League is the best since the 2003-2004 regular season, where Colgate finished as regular season champions and eventual Patriot League Tournament champions.
The home victory is the first over Boston University at Cotterell Court since 2017.
COACH ADEDUNTAN'S COMMENTS
"We were ready to play and we knew we needed to put together a full game. We knew we needed to bounce back. The conversation was we can't dwell on last game's second half, let's take all the positives from the game and we knew we needed to show up today. Boy, did we show up today starting with Tiasia McMillan, she was ready to play. Alexa Brodie, our two captains, we talk about the heart of our team, the heart of a champion, those two have it. From day one, just being able to help our culture come to life. I couldn't be prouder of those two.
"[At halftime we had] a little reminder of the game against Lehigh. We had a lead against them and we just didn't do what we needed to do as far as being locked in and playing our style of basketball. So it was a conversation of that and letting them know it was 0-0. Brand new game for us, in our minds because we know they can get hot at any given moment. They were down 21 to Holy Cross and came back and won that game. So we wanted to throw the first punch and see if we could keep throwing it."
HOW IT HAPPENED
McMillan and Golembiewski combined for 16 of the Raiders 18 first quarter points. Golembiewski dropped 10 points in the first quarter, shooting 4-for-6 from the floor and cashing a 3-pointer with two minutes left in the quarter to put Colgate up 16-9. Brodie capped off the first frame with a euro-step bucket giving the Raiders an 18-9 lead after one quarter.
McMillan picked up right where she left off, scoring five more points in the first five minutes of the second quarter while Brodie drilled a triple from the right corner. The Raiders used an 8-2 run pushing their lead to 26-11 with 5:44 left in the half. Chidinma Okafor drained a long two from the baseline before Brodie hit a layup to end the half with Colgate ahead, 32-19.
Colgate came out of the locker room hot, going on two third quarter runs, pushing Boston University out of reach. McMillan scored two more jumpers while Madison Schiller and Golembiewski each added two points. With 4:51 to go in the third quarter, the Raiders led 49-25 as Schiller drilled a dagger three forcing Boston University to call timeout. Okafor netted another jumper with 1:45 to go before Brodie scored another signature hesitation drive to the basket buzzer beating layup, giving the Raiders a 61-34 edge with 10 minutes to go in the regular season.
Colgate couldn't stop as Amarah Streiff cashed a deep three and Brodie hit her second trey of the day while Christina Midgette and Okafor capped senior night with late game layups, giving the Raiders a historic 77-40 victory and the two seed in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament.
The Raiders were able to hold Boston to just 26.8 percent from the floor (15-for-56) and nine percent from three (1-for-11). Colgate shot 48.6 percent (34-for-70) and 38.5 percent from three (5-for-13). Colgate held the lead for 37 out of the 40 minutes played.
Colgate's bench outscored Boston's 13-4. The Raider's forced 14 Boston turnovers and scored 16 points off those.
UP NEXT
Colgate will get a first-round bye and play the winner of the Lafayette/Navy game on Monday, March 11th at 6 p.m. at Cotterell Court. Ticket information will be available Thursday afternoon.
