Burnatowski Drops 15 Points as Raiders Fall to American, 59-50, in Patriot League Tournament
By Kat Castner
(Washington – March 5, 2014) Despite shooting its second worst half of the season in the opening 20 minutes of play, Colgate rallied back from a game-high 17-point deficit to make for an exciting final three minutes. Unfortunately, the Raiders couldn’t complete the comeback as they dropped a 59-50 decision to American on Wednesday night in the Patriot League Quarterfinals.
“When you dig yourself that big of a hole to a team like this, who plays such a discipline brand of basketball, it makes it really hard to recover,” Colgate head coach Matt Langel said. “I’m proud of our guys for the effort, energy and enthusiasm, it was really a great team to coach over the course of the season.
“I think that our teams in the future will look back on this team and the progress that they’ve made even though we didn’t win the 18 games that American has won, they will look back and say ‘that was the team that really got everything going, they started our winnings ways.’
“I give the American group a lot of credit. Obviously they struggled a little bit lately more than they did at the beginning of the Patriot League play but they didn’t lack in any confidence and they had a ton of energy. They never run out of gas. They’ve played close games all year long and those four guys that play so many minutes have done such a good job for their team.
“I’m really proud of my team and of our guys for the perseverance that they showed. We lost a lot of close games early in the season; with it really starting at the very beginning with Lehigh in double overtime. A lot of guys would have started to point the finger and ask a lot of questions but our group stuck together, led by Murphy (Burnatowski), Chad (Johnson), and Clayton (Graham), our seniors.
Murphy Burnatowski closed out his Colgate career with 15 points to lead the Raiders on the night. The senior finished his two-year stint in the Maroon and White with 984 points, just 16 points shy of becoming the 30th player in program history to reach the milestone. The Waterloo, Ontario, native scored 1,356 total points as a collegian counting his two seasons at Maine.
American used an 18-0 run over a 10-minute, 57-second stretch in the first half to turn a 7-6 Colgate lead on its head. The host Eagles, with that burst, posted their largest lead of the game at 24-7 with 6:24 showing in the first half. Colgate went on a run late, however, to cut American’s lead down to seven, three times in the last two minutes but were unable to pull any closer.
“We finished the season strong and it just so happens that we were on the road on Saturday, and then we had a long bus trip back to Hamilton, played a tough game against Navy before coming down here to play a strong American team two days later. Our offense because of that stretch just wasn’t there in the first half tonight,” Langel said.
“American plays great defense but if you look at our numbers throughout the course of the season, for us to score 15 points, it just doesn’t happen. We have too many weapons and too many talented guys who just didn’t have their normal basketball legs underneath them.”
The Raiders outscored American in the second half 35-29 but a 15-point halftime deficit and a slow start proved to be too much.
Burnatowski led the Raiders in scoring for the 12th time this season. He also pulled down a game-high six boards and two blocks in his final collegiate game.
The remaining scoring for Colgate (13-18, 6-12 PL) went to Austin Tillotson and Damon Sherman-Newsome with 10 points apiece, Ethan Jacobs with eight, Luke Roh with five and Matt McMullen with two.
Tillotson finished his first year in a Colgate uniform with 133 season assists, which places him third all-time in program history. He was four short of second place and seven shy of breaking the record.
Sherman-Newsome went 2-of-3 from long on the night, to finish his junior campaign hitting at least one trey in all but four of Colgate’s games this season.
Roh led the Raiders by handing out a game-high four assists. The Scottsdale, Ariz., native currently sits in eighth place all-time with 254 career assists. He also needs just 22 more boards to break the 500-rebound barrier with one more season still to play.
Colgate’s 50 points matched its season-low, set previously in a 69-50 loss at then No. 9 ranked Syracuse back in November.
The Raiders shot 39.6 percent from the field, making 19-of-48. They were 3-of-15 from the arc and 9-of-18 from the line. American finished at 47.7 percent from the field on 21-of-44. The Eagles were 3-of-11 from long range and 14-of-20 at the line.
American (18-12, 13-5 PL) was led by John Schoof’s game-high 16 points. He also make six of his seven field goals, two of his three shots from behind the arc, and both of his attempts from the charity stripe. Tony Wroblicky added 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Darius Gardner notched 12 points and four assists.
The Eagles outrebounded the Raiders 34-27 but both team’s notched 26 points from inside the paint. Colgate committed 13 turnovers to the Eagles 14 but American posted 17 assists to the Raiders 11.
After a layup from Roh at the 16:01 mark of the first half, Colgate held the one-point edge, at 7-6.
Over the course of the next 10:57, American used an 18-0 run to create the game’s largest margin, at 24-7, before Burnatowski finally ended the Raider drought at the 5:04 mark with a jumper.
The two teams exchanged baskets in the final minutes before the Eagles took a 15-point lead into the break.
The Raiders started the second half on an 8-4 run, sparked by four points from Burnatowski, to cut into American’s advantage.
A jumper from American’s Jesse Reed make it a 14-point game with 6:32 to play but Colgate would not back down, scoring nine of the next 13 points to come within 49-41 with 2:21 left to play. Sherman-Newsome had four of those nine points during that stretch.
Over the next minute and a half Colgate would get the advantage down to seven, three times, but was unable to get any closer as American hung on to secure the victory and advance to Saturday’s semifinal game against Holy Cross.
SAYING GOODBYE
Of Colgate’s 17 players, 14 will be returning for the 2014-15 season. Unfortunately, Burnatowski along with Chad Johnson and Clayton Graham will not be amongst those few. All three senior captains saw action in Wednesday’s game and contributed numerous minutes throughout Colgate’s season and during their time with the program.
In Burnatowski’s two years he registered 50 double-digit scoring games and 18, 20-plus scoring contest, while notching a career-high 35 points against Army on January 23, 2013, where he went 14-of-24 from the floor and 5-of-9 from downtown. This year he moved into 10th all-time in Colgate history with 133 career 3-pointers, while moving into 10th all-time last year with 557 season points.
Johnson closed out his Colgate campaign having seen action in 99 games for the Raiders, while notching 200 points and 108 rebounds throughout his four years. He posted a career-high 12 points, twice, with the most recent one coming against Lehigh on March 6, 2013, when he went 6-of-8 from the floor. He also registered a career-high seven boards in that game as well.
Graham finished his time at Colgate, playing in 68 games for the Maroon and White. He posted 168 points and 157 rebounds, while also handing out 45 assists as a big man. He notched a career-high 11 points earlier this year when he went 5-of-5 from the floor against Ursinus. Clayton also earned a career-high eight rebounds against Navy on February 24, 2013. He posted 16 career blocks with eight of them coming this season, two of which came in this year’s game against No. 9 ranked Syracuse on November 16.
A LOT TO BE PROUD OF
The Raiders accomplished a lot over the course of this season, including breaking a 20-year program record, recording a four-game winning streak, twice, leading the nation in 3-point field goal percentage, and being one of the most prolific shooting teams in the country.
So despite a sad ending to the season, the Raiders have a lot to be proud of.