BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Nasir Whitlock scored 18 points, Joshua Ingram and Edouard Benoit each added 15, and second-seeded Lehigh beat No. 4 seed Boston University 74-60 on Wednesday night to win the Patriot League tournament and clinch its first NCAA tournament berth since 2012.
The American University men’s basketball team (21-12) defeated the Colgate Raiders (14-19) 72-62 on March 9 in the Patriot League Tournament semifinal in Bender Arena.
This was an all-around strong team performance for the Eagles. Five different players scored in double-digits to lift American over the top.
After the Navy Midshipmen defeated No. 1 Bucknell 83-77, the No. 2 Eagles earned the right to host the championship game on March 12 at 7 p.m. Navy was the only team in the Patriot League to defeat the Eagles twice during the regular season.
The Eagles defeated Colgate, which has dominated the Patriot League for the last four years, for the third time this season. No team since the 2017-18 Bucknell Bison has beat Colgate three times in a season.
The Eagles got off to a slow start, going down 7-0 in the first two minutes. Graduate student forward Matt Rogers got the Eagles back on track with a quick layup to tighten the score down 7-2 with 18:03 remaining.
Senior guard Elijah Stephens followed that up by losing his defender for a nice open scoop layup to bring the score to 7-4 with 17:07 left to go in the half.
As the Eagles tried to cut into the Colgate lead, they displayed more intensity on defense. The Eagles forced a shot clock violation and two Colgate air balls in a row.
Rogers then scored a mid-range pull up to take the Eagles’ first lead of the game, 13-12, with 8:58 remaining.
But the Eagles couldn’t create much separation on the scoreboard just yet and found themselves down 22-14 off an 8-0 Colgate scoring run with just under six minutes left.
Graduate student guard Lincoln Ball sparked the rally by getting a tip-in bucket. On the other side, sophomore forward Greg Jones got the steal and scored a 3-pointer. On the next possession, Jones hit another 3-pointer to cut the lead to 24-22 with 3:39 remaining.
With 43 seconds left in the half, Stephens scored a layup to tie the game up at 26-26, forcing Colgate to call a timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Colgate hit a 3-pointer to end the half leading 29-26.
Entering the second half, American took over and never looked back. Graduate student guard Colin Smalls kicked off the scoring by getting a steal and taking it downhill for a quick bucket.
Stephens retook the lead for the Eagles, hitting back-to-back wide open 3-pointers. The score was 34-31 with 17:13 left to go.
With 13 minutes remaining, Jones drove through the lane and pushed through traffic for the bucket and the foul call to take 43-36 while the Eagles had all the momentum.
Sophomore forward Matt Mayock cashed in a transition shot from behind the arc to extend the lead to 10, forcing Colgate to call a timeout. The Eagles led 48-38 with 11:58 to go.
With two minutes left, Smalls iced the game, hitting two huge 3-pointers down the stretch that sealed Colgate’s fate. His second 3-pointer gave the Eagles a 66-52 lead, their largest of the game.
The Eagles went on to win 72-62. Stephens led the team in scoring and assists, dropping 16 points and 4 assists. Rogers followed in scoring with 15 points, as well as 5 rebounds and 2 steals.
Though American’s students were on spring break, Bender was still rocking with a strong turnout of 1,908 people — the fourth largest crowd in Bender this season.
Eagles head coach Duane Simpkins appreciated the crowd and the community’s support.
“They want to see winners,” Simpkins said. “It’s cool to see that we’re getting people excited about coming out because we’re winning basketball games.”
Simpkins was also extremely proud of his team for beating such a successful program in the tournament.
“To be able to beat Colgate, a program that has been dominant for the past five or six years in route to our first championship in some time, is big time,” Simpkins said.
Rogers has matched up against Colgate All-Patriot League Second Team graduate center, Jeff Woodward, many times in his career, and shared his praise for one of his rivals after his final collegiate game.
“He’s a great player. He’s made me better. I’ve hopefully made him better,” Rogers said. “I respect him and I wish him the best going forward.”
Rogers, who had a bounce back game after only scoring 5 points against Lafayette on March 9, talked about the importance of creating smart shots in the offense.
“Just letting the game come to me, not forcing anything, not changing anything that I do and creating other shots for open guys. I’m not trying to be the guy that shoots 30 times in a game. I’m trying to get smart shots, get shots for everybody, even myself,” Rogers said.
Smalls is excited about the opportunity to play in a Patriot League Championship game against Navy on his home court.
“Me and Matt, our first college game was actually against Navy at Navy. So for our last college game at Bender to be against Navy, and to be able to get a win for a Patriot League Championship, it feels amazing. It’s a super amazing opportunity,” Smalls said.
The Patriot League champion will be crowned following Wednesday’s game. The winner of the final will automatically advance to play in the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles have a chance to be in the tournament for the first time since 2014.
HAMILTON, N.Y. (AP) — Brady Cummins scored a career-high 19 points, Braeden Smith had 15 points and 12 rebounds and top-seeded Colgate collected its fourth straight Patriot League Tournament title and NCAA Tournament bid with a 74-55 win over Lehigh on Wednesday.
With its fifth league title in six years, Colgate (25-9) has tied Holy Cross and Bucknell for the most league championships at seven. It was the seventh straight season Colgate played for the championship, the last six on its home court.
Colgate coach Matt Langel tied former Lafayette coach Fran O’Hanlon for the most Patriot tournament wins with 21 and now has the most league championships with five, breaking a tie with former Holy Cross coach Ralph Willard.
Jeff Woodward added 11 points for the Raiders, who shot 56% and outrebounded the Mountain Hawks 43-28. Nasir Whitlock was the only player to score in double figures for Lehigh (14-18) with 17. Cam Gillus, who scored a career-high 30 points in a comeback 84-79 overtime win against Boston University in the semifinals, finished with eight points.
Leading scorer Tyler Whitney-Sidney, who had 21 against Boston University, finished with seven. Colgate had to rally from a 15-point first-half deficit to beat Bucknell 68-65 in a Sunday semifinal and its two regular-season season victories over Lehigh came by only three-point margins.
But this time against the sixth-seeded Mountain Hawks, the Raiders took a 49-27 halftime lead behind 12 points from Cummins and cruised in the second half, leading by as many as 30.
HAMILTON, N.Y. -- — Keegan Records scored 21 points, Tucker Richardson had a triple-double and top-seeded Colgate won its third consecutive Patriot League Tournament championship with a 79-61 victory over six-seeded Lafayette on Wednesday.
The three-peat is the first in the league since Holy Cross accomplished the feat (2000-03). The Raiders were in their sixth straight title game.
The Raiders (26-8) beat the Leopards (11-23) for the third time this season, winning their ninth straight game. The first two wins came on 12- and four-point margins. But the third time around Colgate had a 17-point lead by halftime that reached as many as 24 in the second half.
“I just feel like once we get a lead, we’re just so hard for teams to come back on us because we’ve been in so many big games over the years,” Richardson said in a postgame TV interview.
Records finished 9-of-10 shooting and blocked five shots. League player of the year Richardson, who had double-doubles in the first two tournament games, finished with 14 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists — the first Colgate triple-double since 1997.
HAMILTON, N.Y. (AP) — Tournament MVP Jack Ferguson scored 17 points, Nelly Cummings added 15 and Colgate turned away a late Navy push to win the Patriot League championship game 74-58 on Wednesday and return to the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.
Tucker Richardson scored 12 points as did Jeff Woodward, who grabbed eight rebounds. Oliver Lynch-Daniels added 10 points, all in the first half, for the Raiders (23-11), who won their 15th straight game, the third-longest active win streak in the nation.
Greg Summers had 18 points and eight rebounds, Tyler Nelson added 11 points and John Carter Jr. 10 for the Midshipmen (21-11), who were playing in their first league championship game since 2001.
Colgate led 40-22 at halftime and seemed to have the game well in hand, leading by 22 midway through the second half when Navy went on a 16-0 run led by seven points from Sean Yoder to get within six with six minutes remaining. While the Midshipmen were shooting 5 of 7 the Raiders missed five straight shots and had three turnovers.
Colgate responded by outscoring Navy — which then had its own spate of turnovers plus five straight misses — 14-4 over the the final six minutes.
HAMILTON, N.Y. -- — Tucker Richardson scored 17 points and Jordan Burns and Jack Ferguson 16 each to lead Colgate to a 85-72 win over Loyola Maryland on Sunday for the Patriot League Tournament championship.
Colgate (14-1) advances to its fourth NCAA Tournament where it's never won. Its last appearance came in 2019.
The top-seeded Raiders, in their fourth straight Patriot League title game, led the entire way in extending their program-record win streak to 13.
"This is as unified a group as I've ever been around," Colgate coach Matt Langel said. "I mean, with everything that's going on in the world they've been able to have difficult conversations and grow as a group. And, you know, amidst COVID and all the obstacles that we face, they just keep coming back for more, and they so love one another."
The Raiders made 14 of 23 3-point attempts for 61%, including 7 of 9 in the second half when they pulled away. Richardson had four 3-pointers and four teammates also hit from behind the arc.
Ryan Moffatt added 11 points and Nelly Cummings 10 for Colgate, which came in averaging over 86.4 points per game, tied with Baylor and second only to top-ranked Gonzaga.
"This is what we've been battling to do the whole season," said Burns, a senior. "It's been a crazy journey, but we're so glad we're the team that came out on top. This year gave us the energy to not take any practice lightly and to just continue to go out there and work hard every single day, and I think that's why when it came down to the end, we were able to stretch that lead and end on a comfortable note."
Jaylin Andrews scored 20 points on 9-of-12 shooting for Loyola. Santi Aldama, sixth in the country in scoring at 21.8 points per game, finished with 13 points after scoring 33 in a semifinal win over Army. Isaiah Hart added 11 points. The Greyhounds shot 47% but made only 5 of 22 3-point attempts.
Loyola (6-11) came into the tournament as the ninth seed with a record of 4-10 after not starting play until mid-January and getting off to a 1-7 start. The Greyhounds trailed only 38-33 at halftime, but an 11-2 run put Colgate up by 17 midway through the second half and the lead remained comfortably in double figures.
The two teams didn't meet during the regular season as the league split into three regional mini-conferences because of COVID-19 concerns. Colgate, which began play Jan. 2, faced only three different opponents until reaching the conference tournament.
Now it's on to the NCAAs where the Raiders know they have a monumental task ahead. In its NCAA Tournament history, Colgate has faced two No. 1 seeds and a No. 2.
"These guys will remember this for the rest of their lives, so we'll have a couple days to get ready for somebody who's really good," Langel said. "We'll have to put a game plan together. I know that our guys will pay attention and now they'll be super excited. I think we're really good team, we've got a lot of dangerous weapons, and can hurt you in a lot of ways, and so if we can find a way to defend and keep somebody from getting easy shots against us, I think we really like our group and I know they'll be ready to go."
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