Mariah Jones scored a team-high 17 points to Colgate to a 60-56 upset win over first place Army Wednesday night. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
By John Painter
(Hamilton, NY – Feb. 20, 2013) Colgate turned back the clock, or at least the calendar, to earn its biggest victory of the year.
The Raiders won their second straight home game and knocked Army out of a first-place tie with a 60-56 stunner here Wednesday night. Three Colgate guards scored in double figures as the Raiders rallied from a 12-point deficit in the last 12 minutes.
“This is just huge,” Colgate head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “Our confidence was waning. It was not the best. But Tuesday at practice, we had a pep in our step. I didn’t want it to be fool’s gold, but it kind of looked like we might be back.
“I don’t know if it was because it was Army and we played them so well at their place, but obviously it’s all about matchups.”
Colgate won twice in November and three times in December, knocking off solid clubs like Saint Francis (Pa.) and New Hampshire while taking squads like Sacred Heart and Niagara to the wire in close losses. The Raiders stood 5-7 by the end of 2012, and then plowed NJIT to pull within one game of .500.
But the bottom dropped out in a 10-game losing streak, nine of which opened the Patriot League schedule. Included was a narrow 51-48 loss at Army on Jan. 23, when the Raiders had an excellent chance to win late.
Hays Fort and her staff were left scratching their heads.
“We said to the team before the game, ‘Why did we win six games in non-conference? This is why. Why did we feel good about ourselves back then? This is why,’ Hays Fort said. “Obviously, we just made some huge plays tonight down the stretch.”
Jones Scores, Raiders Win
Sophomore Mariah Jones led the charge with 12 of her team-high 17 points coming after intermission. The Raiders improved to 5-1 in games this season when Jones scores at least 10.
“It felt like we were having a lot of fun out there,” she said. “We were sharing the ball, running the floor and playing really tough defense. It felt a lot like December.”
Jones entered Wednesday averaging just 3.4 points and shooting only 17 percent from the field in Patriot League play. She was just two for her last 23 shooting and hadn’t scored in double figures since the Jan. 3 win over NJIT.
“I’ve been in a little bit of a slump, and so has the rest of the team really,” Jones said. “You could see that. But I hit my first shot, so I felt good about that. I had a little lull toward the end of the first half, but then I got back into it in the second half. My teammates found me, so I just kept shooting.”
Jhazmine Lynch was solid on the defensive end and scored nine of her 11 in the second half, while Lauryn Kobiela chipped in seven of her 10 after the break to help Colgate outscore Army 39-27 over the last 20 minutes.
“You get confidence after you hit some shots,” said Kobiela, who reached double figures for only the second time this year and first since the Saint Francis win. “But defense was our main point. We just kept reiterating that offense would stem from defense and it did.”
Kobiela’s 3-pointer and then a sweet dish to Stockill for a fast break lay-in capped a 7-0 run and pushed the Raiders in front 19-17 with 8:54 left before half. But Colgate went scoreless for the next 7 minutes and 16 seconds until Stockill two free throws at 1:38.
Army, meanwhile, scored 10 straight during that stretch.
Army Jumps Out
Colgate trailed 29-21 at halftime and fell behind 48-36 with 12:14 remaining thanks to a shooting clinic by the Black Knights. Jen Hazlett was the chief culprit, hitting three of Army’s five 3-pointers during this opening stretch.
“We were trying to switch up some defenses and we lost some shooters a couple of times and let them hit a couple of threes,” Hays Fort said. “So we called timeout and went back to man. We just tried to get after it, and all credit to the kids because they made the plays.
“They had some huge stops and forced them into a lot of turnovers that Army usually doesn’t commit. Our pressure was really good during that stretch.”
So good that Colgate blanked the Knights over the next 4:42. And just like Kobiela predicted, the Raiders offense suddenly sprang to life.
The junior guard’s sweeping drive and bank shot pulled Colgate within 48-43 with 10:10 showing. She converted the and-one and it was down to four. Carole Harris hit the second of her three jumpers off the bench to make it a two-point deficit, and then Catherine Lewis connected on a 3-pointer and it was 13 straight Colgate points.
The Raiders led 49-48 with 7:38 remaining.
Army went back on top by three, but Jones connected from 3-point land to tie it at 52-all with 6:06 showing. The Raiders went ahead by three before Olivia Schretzman scored on a layup to make it 56-55 Colgate with 4:11 left.
That’s when Kobiela again showed her passing skills, finding Harris for a banker in the paint that pushed it to 58-55 with 1:57 to play. One minute later, Hazlett was fouled but made just one of two free throws – her only miss of the second half out of nine total shots.
‘Peaking at the Right Time’
Colgate ran the entire 30 seconds off the shot clock and Army regained possession, trailing 58-56, with 25.8 seconds to play. The Black Knights worked their way to three solid chances to tie, including two shots by reining Patriot League Anaconda Player of the Week Kelsey Minato, but nothing fell and the Raiders had their second straight home victory.
“We’re peaking at the right time, which is good for us,” Jones said. “We’re slowly building back up. We have a streak at home and that’s really good for us.”
Colgate defeated Bucknell 58-51 last week at Cotterell Court to snap the 10-game slide.
Hazlett led all scorers with 22, including 16 in the second half, while Minato, who scored 22 against Colgate in January, finished with 11. Anna Simmers added 11 points for Army, which fell to 19-7 overall and 8-3 in the Patriot League. The Black Knights dropped out of a first-place tie with Navy with only three games left in the regular season.
Colgate shot 56 percent from the floor in the second half, making 14 of its 25 shots. For the game, the Raiders finished at 42.3 percent (22-of-52), easily their best Patriot League performance this season. And Colgate committed only 11 turnovers to 17 for Army – with 11 of Army’s miscues coming in the second half.
“We finished and we had fun out there,” Kobiela said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Coach has told us that and it really clicked. We’re not done yet.”
Colgate matches its win-total from a year ago, improving to 8-18 overall and 2-9 in the conference.
The Raiders visit Navy this Saturday in a 7 p.m. start. Navy won this year’s first meeting 59-43 on Jan. 26 in Hamilton.
“Navy is just good, and we did not have much success in the two times we played there last year,” Hays Fort said. “We’re going to have our hands full.
“But if we can go on a little role here and keep building confidence, we obviously will be a tough team in the tournament.”