By Kat Castner
(Worcester, Mass. – March 2, 2013) The Colgate men’s basketball team saw Holy Cross shoot 68.2 percent from the floor in the second half en route to a 74-59 decision over the Raiders Saturday afternoon.
“That was definitely a tough stretch for us,” Colgate head coach Matt Langel said. “We didn’t finish the half well. We had an eight-point lead with two minutes to play and we go into the break only up two.
“In the second half, we got off to a decent start when we built a seven-point lead. But then, obviously, there was a long stretch where we didn’t score very much and they scored a bunch.”
Langel credited a complete Holy Cross effort.
“They’ve had a difficult year in many ways but they’ve stuck through it,” Langel said of the Crusaders. “They could have thrown in the towel but they haven’t.
“I really give De’Vaughn Reid, a guy who hasn’t played a whole lot and is a walk-on in their program, a lot of credit. He made a lot of winning plays today both on the offensive and defensive end that really gave them a boost.”
Colgate (11-20, 5-9 PL) was led by junior Murphy Burnatowski who record his 27th double digit game. His 20 points scored marked his 11th 20-plus point game this season, while Pat Moore and Damon Sherman-Newsome both added nine in the contest. Luke Roh pulled down eight rebounds to lead the team on the boards.
“We definitely need Murphy to score, but he took 22 shots to get his 20 points,” Langel added. “I think if you look at the statistics on the season, when he has more field goal attempts than he does points I don’t know how often we’ve been able to find a way to win the game.
“We shot a decent percentage in the first half, but 30 percent in the second half makes it really tough — especially when the opposition shot 68 percent. Our defense just wasn’t where it needed to be during that stretch.”
The Raiders shot 44.4 percent from the floor in the first half but hit a slump in the second, making only nine of their 30 attempts. They shot 36.8 percent overall and 29.2 percent from downtown. Burnatowski added three of Colgate’s seven from behind the arc, while senior captain Mitch Rolls went 2-of-5 from long range.
Colgate finished with a slim rebounding edge on the Crusaders, 33-31, and scored 26 of their total 59 points from the paint.
Holy Cross (12-17, 4-10) placed four players in double-figure scoring, with Dave Dudzinski’s 13 leading the way. Nine of those points came in the second half.
Reid added 12 points for the Crusaders, while Dee Goens and Jordan Stevens notched 10 apiece. Stevens and Cullen Hamilton both went 2-of-5 from downtown to make four of the Crusaders six from behind the arc.
Holy Cross shot an impressive 68.2 percent in the second half, hitting 15 of their 22 attempts. They managed to shoot 50 percentage overall and 37.5 percent from long-range throughout the game. The Crusaders also missed only four of their 25 shots from the charity stripe.
Colgate held the two-point advantage at the break but the Crusaders rallied back in the second 20 minutes, using a 24-4 run to take and then secure the win.
The Raiders held much of the lead throughout the first half, earning the early 2-0 lead after Moore put in a layup. The Crusaders made the next two baskets to take the two-point lead, however, and the Raiders answered with a 4-0 run to grab the advantage at 6-4. Moore had four of Colgate’s six points in the opening five minutes of play.
After a free throw by Burnatowski, Burrell drained a 3-pointer to knot the game at seven. On the other end of the court Burnatowski answered with his first from long range to extend the Raiders lead back to three at 10-7.
Midway through the half, Colgate increased its advantage to as many as six (24-18) after Sherman-Newsome made a layup in the paint. Holy Cross rallied getting the score to a three-point game after a free throw by Hamilton. But the Raiders would quickly answer, grabbing their largest lead of the half at 32-24 when Sherman-Newsome finished off an easy layup.
The Crusaders would not go away, however, as they went on a 6-0 run in the last two minutes to cut the Raiders lead at the break to two, 32-30.
Heading out of the locker room, the Raiders extended their lead up to 37-30 after Rolls swooshed a 3-pointer. But a Holy Cross basket from behind the arc on the other end sparked a 24-4 run by the Crusaders, which ultimately created too huge a hole for Colgate.
Dudzinski tied the game at 39-all when he worked his way underneath, finishing the basket and earning an and-one. He made the free throw to lift the Crusaders to their first lead since the 12:39 mark in the first half when the score was 13-12.
Burnatowski tried to end the Raiders’ drought with a jumper in the paint, but Holy Cross made the next four baskets to extend its lead to 54-41 with under 10 minutes to play.
The Raiders scored back-to-back buckets to cut the lead to nine but that would be the closest they would come. Holy Cross maintained a 10-point lead for the remainder of the game. The Crusaders would score the game’s last five points from the charity stripe to secure their win.
Colgate returns to the hardwood when the Raiders travel to Bethlehem, Pa., to face defending Patriot League Champions, Lehigh in the quarterfinals of the PL Tournament. The game is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. The teams split the season series 1-1, with both teams earning victories on their home courts.
“Lehigh is defending champions in our league,” Langel said. “They have a veteran group who know what it takes to win in the postseason. I’m sure that’s where their focus will be.
“They’ve battled some adversity throughout the season and aren’t at the top of the standings as they have been in the past. But they do very well at home and it will be a difficult game for us. We are going to have to play much better than we did when we found a way to beat them at home earlier in the season.”