Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
8-9, 5-1PL
Colgate
8-9, 4-2PL
Bucknell?s 5-Game Winning Streak Ends as Hot-Shooting Colgate Prevails 84-73
1/16/2016 10:22:00 PM | Men's Basketball
LEWISBURG, Pa. – Tom Rivard had 23 points and nine rebounds, and Jordan Swopshire hit five of Colgate's 13 3-pointers en route to 17 points, as the visiting Raiders ended Bucknell's five-game winning streak with an 84-73 decision on Saturday night at Sojka Pavilion. Chris Hass scored 18 points for the Bison, who fell into a tie for first place in the Patriot League alongside Navy at 5-1. Colgate pulled within a game of the lead at 4-2.
Stephen Brown had 10 points and nine assists, Ryan Frazier added 10 points, and Dom Hoffman had eight points and a career-high-tying nine rebounds for the Bison, who are now 8-9 overall after falling for the first time since Dec. 27.
Colgate also received 16 points and nine assists from Austin Tillotson and 14 points off the bench from Jordan Robertson. The Raiders (8-9) won in Lewisburg for the second year in a row after losing their previous 11 in a row at Sojka Pavilion.
Colgate turned around a tightly contested game with a flurry of 3-pointers in the final five minutes. Bucknell was the hot-shooting team coming in, having made 27 of 47 from the arc in the last two games, but the Raiders hit 13 treys to just five for the Bison in this one.
Bucknell had just taken a four-point lead at 63-59 after two Hass free throws with 5:23 to go, but Sean O'Brien and Swopshire hit threes on back-to-back possessions, and then Rivard scored in the lane for an 8-0 run that gave Colgate the lead for good.
After Bucknell cut it to two on a Frazier layup, Swopshire and Rivard hit two more triples, and later Robertson's breakaway dunk off a long inbounds pass capped an 18-4 run and gave the Raiders a commanding 77-67 lead with 1:24 to play.
“We didn't execute very well at either end of the floor,” said head coach Nathan Davis. “They spread the floor and were able to get their shooters shots where they were comfortable, and they knocked them down. We didn't do a good enough job defending them.”
Bucknell was excellent defensively in the first 16 minutes of the game. Over that span the Bison limited Colgate to only 16 points, and they built a 13-point lead at 29-16 after a pair of free throws by Brown at the 4:06 mark.
But Colgate doubled its output in the final four minutes of the half, pulling within 34-32 at the break. Then the Raiders came out of the locker room and shot 53.1 percent in a 52-point second half.
Bucknell shot 38.2 percent in the second half and 42.6 percent for the game. Colgate finished at 43.5 percent overall but 46.4 percent (13-28) from the 3-point arc.
Colgate also had a decided edge on the glass. The Raiders came up with 14 offensive boards and finished with a 43-35 rebounding advantage.
Hass has now recorded 18 or more points 12 of Bucknell's 17 games this season. He went over the 1,200-point mark for his career and moved past Hall-of-Famers Joe Steiner and Lorry Hathaway into 17th place on Bucknell's all-time scoring list with 1,213 points.
Navy routed Lafayette 87-61 in Annapolis on Saturday night to pull even with Bucknell atop the Patriot League standings. Colgate is now one back, and Loyola can also get within a game of the lead when it plays at Boston University on Monday.
“Whether we won or lost tonight, there is still a long way to go,” said Davis. “We are only six games in. We are disappointed about tonight's game, but we can't let it derail us from where we want to go.”
The Bison are back in action Wednesday night at Loyola. The game will be televised by the American Sports Network and can be seen locally on WQMY-53 out of Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
