By John Painter
(Easton, Pa. – Feb. 27, 2013) One down and one to go.
Colgate’s drive for the No. 6 seed in the Patriot League Tournament picked up more steam here Wednesday in a game only a coach might appreciate. Make that a defensive coach.
The Raiders won with a final score of just 39-37 over Lafayette to pull within one game of both the Leopards and Bucknell. Win again Saturday and should both of those teams lose again – Bucknell hosts first-place Navy and Lafayette travels to American – and Colgate likely claims a tie-breaker for sixth place by virtue of its Feb. 20 triumph over second-place Army.
Which means Saturday’s Senior Day showdown against Holy Cross should be a hoot.
“It’s going to be fun,” Raiders head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “It’s what we’ve been striving for all season, to be peaking at tournament time.
“Tonight was not pretty basketball, but we had some pretty huge defensive stops to get us the win.”
Colgate improved to 9-19 overall and 3-10 in the Patriot League. Lafayette is 11-17 and 4-9.
Effort – Plus Some Luck
Despite missing two starters, Colgate put the clamps on Lafayette – especially in the second half when the Leopards shot just eight percent from the field on 2-for-24 over the final 20 minutes. The last two misses for Lafayette were especially painful, when first Danielle Fiacco and then Emily Homan came up empty from point-blank range with their team trailing by one in the closing seconds.
Raiders forward Josie Stockill snatched the second rebound and was fouled with 3.4 seconds left. She hit one of two free throws for the final margin.
“We were just really lucky that those two shots missed, and then somehow I got the ball,” Stockill said. “It just worked out.”
Hays Fort worked her way through several lineup combinations during the night, none of which included veteran starters Missy Repoli and Kelly Reid. Both have made 20 starts this season, but Repoli missed her eighth straight game with an illness and Reid was sidelined by a leg injury.
“We knew missing Kelly tonight that we were going to be hurting on the boards,” Hays Fort said. “Kelly is our leading rebounder, and this is a relentless rebounding team. They are relentless on the glass. We win the game, and they still beat us by 10 on the boards.”
Lafayette claimed that battle 50-40, thanks in part to 12 blocked shots from the combination of Fiacco (7) and Homan (5). But Colgate countered with 13 steals to help force 25 Leopard turnovers. Jhazmine Lynch had four of those steals and Lauryn Kobiela three.
“Lauryn and Jhazmine both were all over the place, and Randyll (Butler) had some huge steals too,” Hays Fort said. “We were just very active on defense.”
A 17-of-21 effort at the free-throw line helped keep Lafayette within striking distance.
The home side led by as many as five in the first half; Colgate by six on a couple of occasions in the second. There were eight ties and nine lead changes.
Team Defense Throughout
One question: How did Colgate manage to stay close despite shooting just 17 percent from the field in the first half?
“We did have good team defense,” said Lynch, who led Colgate with 11 points. “Yeah, they were bigger than us, but all were digging down and competing as much as we could.
“We didn’t have a lot to show for this game offensively, but we did play great defense.”
Back-to-back layups by Mariah Jones, the second after a steal and dish from Kobiela, tied the game at 21 with 17:27 left. Moments later, Catherine Lewis bombed a pair of 3-pointers and the Raiders were suddenly on top 28-22 with 11:22 to play.
This was a big defensive stretch for Colgate, when the Raiders held Lafayette scoreless for 7 minutes and 31 seconds. Colgate, in fact, didn’t allow a Leopards field goal in the second half until Maddie Peabody scored on a fast-break layup with just 6:56 left in the game.
That capped a quiet 8-0 Lafayette run and pushed the homesiders back on top 32-30. But the Raiders answered immediately with the next six points – Lynch, Stockill and Kobiela doing the honors to make it 36-32 with 3:32 showing.
Peabody nailed a 3-pointer to cut it to one, and then Fiacco made two free throws to flip Lafayette back in front 37-36. But after Lynch missed a jumper, Carole Harris came up with a steal on the ensuing possession and fed Lynch for a fast-break bucket that proved to be the game-winner with 2:26 left.
Empty possessions were traded until Lafayette had its final chance in the last 15 seconds. Both Fiacco and Homan had great looks at the hoop, but their shots found iron.
Road Win Means a Lot
Colgate had its first road win in conference play under Hays Fort and first in the league away from home by any Raiders squad since a 59-55 triumph at Navy on Jan. 29, 2011. Counting tournament play, Wednesday’s win snapped a 19-game Patriot League road losing streak.
“The team really appreciates what this means, just because of how hard it was on defense to get stops,” Hays Fort said. “This is only our second road win and our first Patriot League road win, so we know how hard it is to win away from home.
“We know how hard it is just to win, period, in the Patriot League. So we’re not going to give it back.”
Lynch tied Fiacco for game scoring honors with 11. The senior now has 1,157 points, just 10 shy of overtaking Lori Perretta (1993-97) for 12th place on Colgate’s career list.
“I was in attack-mode,” Lynch said. “We knew Fiacco and Homan were going to be there waiting for us, so we had to be smart about it. We tried not to take it all the way in, but just take what was there and dish it when we had to.”
Stockill added eight points, while Jones and Lewis chipped in six apiece. Kobiela scored five points and tossed in three assists and two blocks to go with her three steals. Lulu Brase didn’t score but grabbed seven important rebounds.
Not surprisingly, Colgate won when scoring fewer than 40 points for the first time since a 39-27 victory over Utica back in February 1975, the Raiders’ second varsity season. They were 0-38 in the fewer-than-40 situation since, and are now 5-50 when scoring under 40 – the four previous wins coming in those first two seasons.
Next up is Holy Cross (15-13, 7-6) on Saturday in a 4 p.m. tip from Cotterell Court. The Crusaders beat Colgate 71-61 on Feb. 2 in Worcester, but they lost Wednesday night in their home finale 62-35 to Army.
“Obviously it’s Senior Day, and we’ve got three great seniors,” Hays Fort said of Lynch, Lulu Brase and Rebekah Ward. “I’m sure they will be pretty emotional because they all will have their families there, but hopefully they can pull it together so we can end on a good note.”
Colgate 39, Lafayette 37
Colgate (9-19, 3-10): Josie Stockill 8, Lauryn Kobiela 5, Jhazmine Lynch 11, Mariah Jones 6, Catherine Lewis 6, Paige Kriftcher 3. Totals: 14-7-39.
Lafayette (1-17, 4-9): Emily Homan 6, Danielle Fiacco 11, Maddie Peabody 7, Madeline Fahan 4, Brya Freeland 2, Jamie O’Hare 5, Kelly Loughney 2. Totals: 9-17-37.
3-Point Field Goals: Colgate 4 (Lewis 2, Kobiela, Kriftcher); Lafayette 2 (Peabody, O’Hare).
Halftime: Lafayette 19-17.