Damon Sherman-Newsome tallied 16 points to lead Colgate to a 57-51 win over Navy in the first round of the 2014 Patriot League Tournament. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
Burke Again Grabs Patriot Rookie Award
Goalkeeper Saves 10 in Weekend Victory over Bucknell
By John Painter
(Hamilton, NY – March 3, 2014) Colgate’s Brandon Burke notched his second Patriot League Rookie of the Week Award in the last three games after his showing against Bucknell.
The first-year netminder stopped 10 Bison shots, including eight of those in the second half as the Raiders were fighting for the one-point victory. Burke has seen the majority of action at goalkeeper as Colgate has opened the season 3-1.
“Brandon has been great in the goal,” senior captain Jimmy Ryan said after Saturday’s win. “He’s made some really big saves and it’s always great when your goalie can take a few off the board when there are a few defensive lapses.”
For the season, the Potomac, Md., native owns a .633 save percentage and 5.62 goals-against average. Burke’s save percentage leads the Patriot League and ranks eighth nationally, while his goals-against average stands second and fourth.
Colgate, now 1-1 in the Patriot League, steps out of conference action Tuesday against Hobart (0-3). The Raiders play at first-year league foe Boston University (0-5, 0-1) Saturday.
Earning Votes: Colgate returned to the earning-votes category in both major polls. The 3-1 Raiders have yet to crack the top 20 in either major poll but are on the cusp of doing so.
Maryland’s win over previous No. 1 Duke vaulted the Terrapins (4-0) to the top spot in both the USILA Coaches Poll and Warrior Media Poll.
Kevin Adams scored a pair of goals to lead Colgate to a come-from-behind 7-5 win over Hobart Tuesday afternoon. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
Adams Leads Second-Half Rally
Men’s Lacrosse Erases Three-Goal Halftime Deficit to Beat Hobart, 7-5
By Matt Faulkner
(Hamilton, NY – March 4, 2014) It was a tale of two halves for Colgate in a 7-5 win over Hobart on Tuesday.
Down 4-1 after 30 minutes, the Raiders responded with a six-goal second half to overtake the Statesmen.
Colgate (4-1) was led by Kevin Adams and his hat trick, which included two of final five scores. His third goal of the game tied the score at 5-5 with 6:27remaining in the game. Matt Clarkson netted two goals, while Brendon McCann posted two points, one of which was the gamewinner on a great feed from Ryan Walsh.
“I’ve got to give our guys credit,” Raiders head coach Mike Murphy said. “I challenged them at halftime and it was going to be a game we had to respond to. Kevin did a great job scoring three goals, Alex Kinnealey doesn’t lose a faceoff in the second half — as you look at the stats we just out-statted them.
“I challenged our attack. Something I’ve been very frustrated with in the first four games is our inability to ride. We did a better job today riding and getting extra possessions — and we needed them.”
Walsh saw his 34-game goal scoring streak come to an end, but he picked up the assist to keep his point streak alive at 37 consecutive games. That streak is the fourth-best active one in the country.
Fresh off his second Patriot League Rookie of the Week award, Brandon Burke made six saves with five coming in the first half. He only had to make one stop in the second 30 minutes with the pressure being put on the Hobart defense.
The Statesmen (0-4) got two goals from Zach Reed and a goal and assist from Cam Stone. Reed had Hobart’s lone goal in the second half. Peter Zonino had 10 saves in the cage with four coming in the third quarter. He kept the Statesmen in the game with a few great stops in the second half.
Hobart came out firing on the Raiders in a slow start for the home squad. The Statesman scored the first four goals of the game and grabbed the 4-0 lead with under three minutes left in the first half. The Raiders had issues clearing the ball in the opening half with just one successful clear in seven attempts.
The four goals scored by Hobart were from four different players and three of the four were unassisted. Stone had the lone assist with a nice feed to Brendan Saylor, which gave the visitors a 4-0 advantage.
Clarkson stopped the bleeding with 3:40 to go in the half with Will Mette getting the assist and the teams went into the locker room at 4-1. Hobart was not dominating the stat sheet like a three-goal lead would dictate. The Statesmen were making their attempts count and had a 17-15 shot advantage in the opening half.
Murphy told his team that the effort needed to change in the second half and the Raiders responded.
Adams started the scoring in the third quarter with the first of three on the day at the 11:39 mark. Reed got that one back for Hobart with his second of the day and with 6:49 remaining. Unfortunately for the Statesman, that was the last time they found the net.
Colgate put a stranglehold on the rest of the game and scored the final five goals with four coming in the last 10 minutes.
Eric Foote got the run started with an unassisted tally at the two-minute mark of the third quarter to cut the lead to 5-3.
Adams then added back-to-back goals with one coming on a man-up chance. He tied the game at 5-5 with 6:27 left. Walsh did some work behind the net and feed Adams out front and he buried it for his third goal of the contest.
“It was a good day, especially in the second half,” Adams said. “I feed a lot off of what Ryan and Brendon do behind the cage, and in the first half they (Hobart) were really crashing down on the crease and we just didn’t have the ball a whole lot.
“Second half, I was able to find some space off-ball and finish my shots. It was a good effort in the second half.”
McCann gave Colgate the 6-5 lead with 1:40 remaining on a nice show of individual effort. He came from behind the net and beat Zonino with a rising shot for his second point of the day and that proved to be the gamewinner. Clarkson added a little insurance with 18 seconds left with a rocket from the right side to close out the scoring at 7-5.
“It’s something we’ve stressed to this team is just do your job,” Murphy said. “When we got the man-up opportunity, we didn’t need to make a home run; we just needed to stay the course is the best way to put it. We did what we needed to do and we were able to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The defense for the Raiders really clamped down in the second half as Colgate outshot the Statesmen 22-5. Alex Kinnealey should not be a forgotten part of the comeback as he was a perfect 9-for-9 at the X. He really turned it around for the Raiders in that facet of the game as Colgate won only one faceoff in the opening half.
“We were really good up the middle,” Murphy said. “When Alex started to get going, it gave us the ability to possess the ball. We started riding and got extra possessions, and then we were able to limit what they could do offensively through our own possession time but also with some pretty good defensive play in the second half as well.”
Colgate is back on the field this coming weekend at new Patriot League member Boston University. The game is set for a 1 p.m. start at Nickerson Field.
Raiders Battled to Season’s End
Colgate Closes 2013-14 Campaign with 59-49 Patriot League Tournament Loss at Lehigh
By John Painter
(Bethlehem, Pa. – March 4, 2014) So many similarities were evident between Tuesday’s Colgate-Lehigh Patriot League Tournament First Round game and the thriller in Hamilton three days earlier.
These two teams were playing a rematch of their regular season finale won by Colgate that handed the Raiders the conference’s ninth seed and Lehigh the eighth.
The key difference here was the outcome, however, as Mountain Hawks held off a late Raiders charge to win 59-49 and advance to a quarterfinal-round matchup at Navy.
Sarah Williams propelled Lehigh’s early second-half surge by scoring 10 points between halftime and the first media timeout. The Mountain Hawks guard had scored just 15 total points in 100 minutes of basketball against Colgate this season before exploding for 14 points in Tuesday’s final 20 minutes.
She tied teammate Katie O’Reilly for game scoring honors at 16.
“Sarah Williams did a great job, which opened it up for her teammates,” Colgate head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “And we were missing shots, so we couldn’t set up our pressure. That’s what we were able to do Saturday, and then we were able to do it tonight again but not until the last eight minutes.
“They weren’t bad shots, but we were missing shots and then scrambling back. And Sarah Williams did a great job.”
Colgate matched exactly is statistical field goal numbers from Saturday’s regular season sendoff against Lehigh. The Raiders for the second game in a row were 23-of-76 from the floor for 30.3 percent.
Two key differences that led to the change in result were Colgate’s 2-for-23 showing from the arc and only a 1-of-2 scorecard at the free throw line. Lehigh finished 17-of-27 at the charity stripe.
Points at a Premium
Colgate trailed just 21-19 at intermission. Both teams shot in the mid-20 percent range during a rough and tumble opening 20 minutes, and Colgate wound up with its third-lowest halftime scoring total for the season.
Lauryn Kobiela had helped the Colgate cause with five straight points late in the period, lifting the Raiders to their first lead of the game at 17-15 with 4:24remaining. When Carole Harris added a jumper, it looked like the Raiders might get a chance to test their 7-0 record this season when leading at the break.
But Lehigh’s Elizabeth Sharlow scored the half’s final six points over a 2:42stretch to send the Mountain Hawks into the locker room with momentum.
And that’s when Williams took over. By the time her 10-point spurt in the early stages of the second half was over, Lehigh led 35-24 with 16:31 showing.
The hosts built the advantage to as much as 48-28 with 8:39 to play before Colgate put forth one final charge to save the season. Mariah Jones, Kelly Reid and Catherine Lewis combined for a 10-0 Raiders run that narrowed the gap to 48-38 with 4:49 left.
Colgate drew within 53-47 with 90 seconds showing, and the sharpshooting Lewis had a decent look at a 3-pointer with 1:08 to play. But Lewis drew iron and Lehigh converted six of its final eight free throw attempts.
“We could have folded but we didn’t,” Hays Fort said. “We kept fighting and we cut it to six.”
Jones, Kobiela Shine
Jones couldn’t duplicate her 25-point effort from Saturday against Lehigh, but she did score 12 after being blanked in the first half because of early foul trouble. Kobiela added 11 to go with five assists and three steals.
“Coach wanted us to keep fighting and we did,” Jones said. “We wanted to really scramble them and get them off balance. We forced them into 22 turnovers, which shows we were able to get in the passing lanes and make them cough it up.
“We just didn’t finish a couple of shots down the stretch.”
Other scoring for the Raiders belonged to Randyll Butler with eight, Reid and Harris with six apiece, and then Lewis, Jackie Hudepohl and Josie Stockill with two points each. Butler just missed tying her career high with 10 rebounds.
The Raiders’ defense did wonders on Lehigh scoring leader Kerry Kinek, holding her to just three points on 1-of-6 shooting after she had scored 22 in Saturday’s meeting. Kinek managed to grab 13 rebounds, all on the defensive glass.
“I’m disappointed for this team, just because it could have ended so very differently,” Hays Fort said. “But I’m happy because they could have folded back in February and they didn’t. They chose to fight back.
“Our goal to close the regular season was win three of four, and we did. We fought really hard and then we maybe just ran out of gas. I’m proud of the way we fought the entire season, but especially tonight.”