LAVAL, Quebec – Andrew Alekseyenko's 16 points led four Raiders in double-figures, and Colgate capped off an unbeaten weekend by knocking off Fordham 72-62 to win the Northern Classic championship inside Place Bell on Sunday afternoon.Â
Alekseyenko scored 10 of his 16 in a big first half that propelled the Raiders to a double-digit lead. He added eight rebounds, two steals, and two assists. Josh Ahayere in his first career start matched his career high with 15 points for the second straight game. Kyle Carlesimo and Sam Wright scored 11 and 10, respectively.Â
Colgate shot 45 percent overall (27-60), including 34.6 from behind the arc (9-26). Fordham finished with a 43.3 percentage (26-60) and was 22.2 percent from the perimeter (4-18).Â
HOW IT HAPPENED
Similar to the early success on Saturday, Alekseyenko sparked the Raiders in the opening minutes on Sunday. He canned two treys and led the Raiders with eight points midway through the opening stanza, helping Colgate establish a 13-7 advantage.Â
Suffocating defense from the Raiders limited Fordham to a 3-for-16 start from the field. After treys from Ben Tweedy and Carlesimo, Colgate was 4-for-10 from behind the arc, but battled through five first-half turnovers, to lead 18-11 with less than eight minutes to go.
Both teams showed signs of playing three games in three days, with slow scoring stretches throughout the frame. Colgate weathered the inefficiencies anchored by its defense, which held Fordham to a 26.7 shooting clip with two blocked shots from Ayomi Odetoyinbo and four steals.
Jalen Cox swished a 3-pointer from the wing, pushing Colgate's lead to double-digits, 25-15, and then a three-point play from Ahayere capped the first-half scoring with the Raiders in front 30-17 at the intermission.Â
Colgate opened the second half with a quick 7-0 burst capped by a 3-pointer from Ahayere to balloon the lead to 37-17. A second-chance putback by Wright gave the Raiders their largest lead of the game, 42-21, four minutes into the second stanza.Â
Fordham didn't go down without a fight, and the Rams responded with a 12-3 run over a three-minute span, finished by a three-point play from Akira Jacobs, closing the gap to 45-33. Wright's only 3-pointer of the contest was Colgate's lone score during that span.
Jacobs got going for the Rams, who cut it to a two-possession game when his trey capped a 9-0 run to make it 62-56 with 3:03 to go.
Ahayere came up with a critical offensive rebound and turned into a second-chance layup to bring the lead back to double-digits, 66-56, which stood as Colgate's margin the rest of the way in capping off the unbeaten weekend, 72-62.Â
NOTES
- Coming off a career-high 15 points in Saturday's win over Oneonta, Josh Ahayere matched that total in his first collegiate starting nod on Sunday. He led the team in scoring this weekend, averaging 12.3 points per game.Â
- This was Colgate's first win over Fordham since the 1994-95 season when the Raiders beat the Rams 75-68. Fordham had won the last three head-to-head meetings.
- The Raiders have their first win against an Atlantic 10 opponent since they beat George Mason 66-53 in the 2015-16 season opener.
- Colgate has its first three-game non-conference win streak since rattling off three in a row against Brown, Wells, and Syracuse in November 2022.Â
UP NEXT
Colgate (5-4) brings its three-game win streak back to Hamilton, where the Raiders host St. John Fisher on Saturday at 2 p.m.Â
