By John Painter
(Washington – Jan. 12, 2013) Colgate’s road shooting problems continued and a short-handed Raiders side dropped a 54-45 decision to American here Saturday.
The Patriot League opener for both teams saw Colgate held to just 27.6-percent shooting from the field. It was Colgate’s fifth road game out of eight where the Raiders finished below the 30-percent mark.
The Raiders, now 6-9 overall, also were hampered by the absence of Lulu Brase.
Colgate’s starting center has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a stress fracture in her knee. It’s a continuation of knee problems that have plagued Brase throughout her Raiders career, which ends with 45 games played over four seasons.
“We missed Lulu; we definitely did,” Colgate head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “But we played some great basketball for a big part of the game and had a lot of great looks. We just had some costly turnovers, really in the first half.”
First-Half Lead
Shots were falling at somewhat better rates in that opening period, when Colgate built a 24-19 lead despite the 10 turnovers. Mariah Jones, playing in front of several friends and family from her home in nearby Silver Spring, Md., hit two of the Raiders’ four first-half threes and had six points at the break to lead a balanced scoring attack.
But American (8-7) scored 11 of the first 13 points after the break to race in front 30-26. Colgate reclaimed a 31-30 advantage thanks to a Lauryn Kobiela 3-pointer and Jhazmine Lynch’s layup, but American countered with 10 straight points over a 4:21 span to take the lead for good.
Included in that stretch was one Eagles offensive possession that featured four American misses from the field followed by four offensive rebounds. Jen Dumiak finally made good on American’s fifth chance, connecting on a short jumper that made it 34-31 homesiders with 9:42 to go.
“That was tough,” Hays Fort said. “We were doing a good job for the most part defensively, but that was tough. “
Dumiak and then Alexis Dobbs did the second-half damage for the Eagles. Dumiak scored eight of her 10 points after the break, and Dobbs hit for 10 of her 12 down the stretch – including two 3-pointers.
“They are both really good players,” Hays Fort said. “Dobbs is first-team All-Patriot League, and we did a good job on them as a team. But we lost them a couple of times and those were costly. Those were two key threes that Dobbs hit.”
American was 0-of-10 from 3-point distance in the first half before finally connecting on three long-range bombs down the stretch to finish 3-of-21. Colgate made six of its 20 tries from 3-point distance.
Colgate waited nearly three minutes to score its first points of the game, but Kobiela’s layup and a Jones 3-pointer suddenly handed the Raiders a 5-4 advantage with 15:00 showing on the first-half clock. There were three ties and three lead changes during the opening half, and Colgate led by as much as 24-16 when Carole Harris hit the second of two straight layups with 1:48 left.
Reid Paces Stout Defense
Hays Fort said the five-point halftime lead could have been more if the Raiders had just taken advantage of their strong defensive effort.
“It was a low-scoring game and we were doing a good job for the most part defensively,” she said. “If we were making shots, then you would have seen that we were playing a really good defensive game.
“If we can knock down some layups, knock down a few of those set-shots and cut down on the turnovers, it’s a different game.”
American won the rebounding column 45-39, but Colgate’s Kelly Reid did her part to fill the Brase void with a season-high 11 boards.
“Kelly Reid really stepped up rebounding and with her defense,” Hays Fort said. “She played a great defensively game against (Stephanie) Anya and all of those other kids on the inside. She was a big factor in why they didn’t get many easy baskets inside and was everywhere on help defense.”
Lynch was Colgate’s only double-figure scorer for the second straight game, finishing with 10 points. She increased her career total to 1,038 points and passed former Raiders Lorelei Grosskurth (1982-86) and Tracy Davis (1985-89) to take over 16th place on the school’s all-time list.
The Patriot League’s steals leader coming in, Lynch added two more to give her 31 for the season. Kobiela and Jones scored seven points apiece to complement Lynch, while Catherine Lewis added six points on a pair of threes.
Colgate was 16-of-58 from the floor for 27.6 percent, and just 7-of-14 from the line. Last Sunday at Charlotte, Colgate turned in its season-low shooting percentage of 26.0 in a 57-33 loss.
“We have some shooting woes period, right now, but we do have some road shooting woes,” Hays Fort said.
Colgate had won six of its previous seven times this season when leading at halftime. And Saturday’s win by American was the Eagles’ 13th straight over Colgate dating to 2007.
The Raiders return to action Wednesday at Bucknell (9-7), which opened league play with a 68-60 loss at Army. Start time is 7 p.m.
American 54, Colgate 45
Colgate (6-9, 0-1): Kelly Reid 3, Lauryn Kobiela 7, Mariah Jones 7, Catherine Lewis 6, Jhazmine Lynch 10, Paige Kriftcher 5, Josie Stockill 3, Carole Harris 4. Totals: 16-7-45.
American (8-7, 1-0): Aaron Zimmerman 6, Stephanie Anya 7, Jen Dumiak 10, Ti’Asia McGeorge 3, Alexis Dobbs 12, Shaquilla Curtis 4, Geleisa George 10, Sarah Kiely 2. Totals:22-7-54.
3-Point Field Goals: Colgate 6 (Jones 2, Lewis 2, Kobiela, Lynch); Charlotte 3 (Dobbs 2, McGeorge).
Halftime: Colgate 24-19.