Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
11-14, 7-5PL
Colgate
15-10, 6-6PL
Bailey Leads Bucknell Men to 68-57 Win Over Colgate on Senior Day
2/16/2002 7:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2002
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Senior Bryan Bailey, playing in his final home contest, scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds to lead Bucknell to a 68-57 win over Colgate before a sellout crowd of 1,800 at Davis Gym Saturday afternoon.
Bailey made 8 of 15 field-goal attempts and 7 of 11 free throws to help Bucknell (11-14, 7-5) remain in a third-place tie with Lafayette in the Patriot League standings. Colgate, which entered the game tied for third with those two teams, fell to 15-10, 6-6.
Trailing 38-35 with 13:19 remaining, Bucknell scored 11 straight points as part of a 19-5 run to assume a commanding 54-43 lead with 8:04 remaining. Bailey had 10 points during the run, which closed with Bailey and Matt Quinn draining consecutive 3-pointers.
Colgate got as close as seven points on two occasions, but Dan Blankenship's long 3-pointer as the shot clock expired pushed Bucknell's lead back to double digits at 63-53 with 2:44 remaining. Blankenship made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 2:05 to help seal the win.
After spotting the Raiders a 6-2 lead, the Bison scored six straight to take the lead for the first time at 8-6, and Bucknell held the lead for the final 13:26 of the half. Chris Rodgers' 3-pointer from the left corner as time expired sent Bucknell to the locker room with its largest lead, six points at 32-26.
The Bison managed only one field goal in the first 6:56 of the second half, and Colgate outscored Bucknell 12-3 over that span to grab a 38-35 lead following Dave Hardy's free throws at the 13:19 mark. Those would be the Raiders last points for the next 4:01, however.
Boakai Lalugba ignited the game-changing 11-0 outburst with a three-point play, and Bailey added another three-point play three minutes later.
Pat Campolieta, Colgate's leading scorer and rebounder, picked up his fourth foul with 9:41 to play and scored only two points the rest of the way. He finished with 10 points, six rebounds and six steals.
Howard Blue led Colgate with 16 points while Mark Linebaugh added 15. The Raiders shot only 33.3 percent from the field and made only 2 of 20 from 3-point range.
Bailey topped the 20-point mark for the third straight game and recorded his first career double double. The 6-1 guard now has 30 rebounds in his last three games. Senior Pete Santos also played in his final home game. He started and logged two points and two rebounds in six minutes.
Dan Blankenship added 15 points and a career-high seven rebounds for Bucknell, which shot 42.6 percent from the field.
The contest was the last Patriot League regular-season game ever to be played in Davis Gym. Bucknell will move into a new on-campus arena in time for the conference schedule in January of 2003.
Bucknell has won eight of its last nine against Colgate, including a sweep of the season series this season.
Bucknell, which sits two games behind American and one back of Holy Cross with two games remaining in the regular season, visits Holy Cross Wednesday at 7 p.m. Colgate travels to Army on Wednesday.
