{"id":52606,"date":"2013-12-24T10:30:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T15:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=52606"},"modified":"2013-12-24T08:43:39","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T13:43:39","slug":"raiders-win-streak-ends-at-albany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=52606","title":{"rendered":"Raiders\u2019 Win Streak Ends at Albany"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"COLGATE<\/a><\/p>\n

Colgate Suffers First Loss This Month, 64-50 to Nine-Win Great Danes<\/p>\n

By John Painter<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Albany, NY \u2013 Dec. 22, 2013) Colgate nearly pulled off a nifty Christmas surprise, but Albany outlasted the Raiders over the final 10 minutes to claim a 64-50 decision here Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Great Danes, who went 27-4 overall last season and a perfect 16-0 in the America East Conference, improved to 9-2 this year and snapped a mini two-game losing streak. One of those losses was earlier this week at No. 2-ranked Duke.<\/p>\n

The Raiders dropped to 4-6 and saw their three-game winning streak come to an end with their first loss since November.<\/p>\n

Paige Kriftcher nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give Colgate a 39-36 lead with\u00a010:50\u00a0remaining in what to that point was a back-and-forth affair. But Albany proceeded to score the game\u2019s next 14 points and was in control the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a scoring drought and that that was huge, but we also gave up some big offensive rebounds,\u201d Raiders head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. \u201cWe were only outrebounded by four (37-33), and that\u2019s good because they are outrebounding teams by close to eight. But they scored on all their offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the killer and the big turning point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Block-Charge Call Overturned<\/b><\/p>\n

A pair of 3-pointers from Albany\u2019s Erin Coughlin flipped the three-point Colgate advantage to the home side, and that\u2019s when a key play occurred.<\/p>\n

Albany\u2019s Tammy Phillip drove the lane and appeared to charge through Raiders forward Carole Harris. That was the call until it was overturned, with the ruling that Harris was standing within the no-charge semicircle under the basket.<\/p>\n

Phillip missed both free throws, but super sophomore Shereesha Richards hustled the rebound and put it back for a 44-39 Great Danes lead with\u00a07:44\u00a0to play. Richards scored again 20 seconds later on a fast break and Albany had its largest lead since early in the first half.<\/p>\n

Richards finished with game highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds, nearly identical to her season averages.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur half-court defense was really spectacular,\u201d Hays Fort said. \u201cWe just gave up some offensive rebounds around that 10-minute mark that ended up costing us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Albany led for most of the first half, including by as many as 15-8 at the\u00a014:27\u00a0mark. But the Raiders rallied and forged the first tie at 19-all when Josie Stockill scored on a layup with\u00a07:02\u00a0showing. Harris followed with a jumper and Colgate was in front 21-19 with\u00a06:17\u00a0to play before half.<\/p>\n

Albany led 24-23 at intermission.<\/p>\n

Second-Half Streaks<\/b><\/p>\n

The Great Danes scored the first two out of the break before a series of runs took place. Colgate went first on a 7-0 spurt, followed by Albany 8-0, and Colgate another 6-0 that made it 36-34 Raiders with\u00a013:44\u00a0to play.<\/p>\n

An Albany layup with\u00a012:03\u00a0showing set the stage for Kriftcher\u2019s 3-pointer and the last Colgate lead of the game. Desperation fouls and Albany free throw conversions helped make the final margin larger than the game deserved.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir pressure is good and they played a great zone,\u201d Hays Fort said. \u201cWe wanted to attack inside the 3-point line and had a really hard time getting it inside. We had some really good looks; we just weren\u2019t able to knock down shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery person who played for us had a basket, which is great. We just didn\u2019t have anybody with a big night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Missy Repoli was 3-of-6 from downtown to lead the Raiders in scoring for the first time this season with nine points. Harris added eight and Stockill seven, with Mariah Jones and Catherine Lewis scoring six apiece. Harris, Stockill and Kelly Reid all posted six rebounds, and Stockill blocked a game-high three shots.<\/p>\n

Kiwi Contest<\/b><\/p>\n

Stockill was going against a fellow Kiwi on the court in Albany\u2019s 6-foot-9 reserve center Megan Craig. Stockill and Craig both hail from New Zealand\u2019s North Island and spent quite a bit of time playing against one another on the hardcourts back home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really tough playing against Megan Craig; she had a fair few inches on us,\u201d Stockill said. \u201cWe fronted the posts really well but it was a tough matchup inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce the momentum shifted, we struggled to get it back. We could have taken care of the ball a little bit better, but we fought pretty hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colgate shot 33 percent (16-of-49) from the field, including 35 percent (7-of-19) from 3-point distance, while Albany finished at 44 percent (20-of-46) and 36 percent (5-of-14), respectively. The Raiders made 11 of 16 free-throw tries, and Albany was 19-of-30.<\/p>\n

Colgate\u2019s bench outscored the home side 23-7, but Albany owned the paint by a 28-12 margin and outscored the Raiders 24-9 in points-off-turnovers.<\/p>\n

In addition to Richards, Albany received 14 points from Sarah Royals and 12 from Coughlin \u2013 all on 3-pointers. Craig added five points and six boards.<\/p>\n

The Raiders have two more trips on this current five-game road swing, continuing Sunday\u00a0at Michigan State in a\u00a02 p.m.\u00a0start. Colgate\u2019s next home game is\u00a0Jan. 5against Bucknell.<\/p>\n

Albany 64, Colgate 50<\/p>\n

Colgate (4-6):\u00a0Kelly Reid 2, Carole Harris 8, Lauryn Kobiela 5, Mariah Jones 6, Catherine Lewis 6, Randyll Butler 4, Paige Kriftcher 3, Missy Repoli 9, Josie Stockill 7. Totals: 16-11-50.<\/p>\n

Albany (9-2):\u00a0Sarah Royals 14, Shereesha Richards 21, Erin Coughlin 12, Margarita Rosario 5, Tammy Phillip 5, Imani Tate 2, Megan Craig 5. Totals: 20-19-64.<\/p>\n

3-Point Field Goals:\u00a0Colgate 7 (Repoli 3, Lewis 2, Jones, Kriftcher); Albany 5 (Coughlin 4, Rosario).<\/p>\n

Halftime:\u00a0Albany 24-23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colgate Suffers First Loss This Month, 64-50 to Nine-Win Great Danes By John Painter (Albany, NY \u2013 Dec. 22, 2013) Colgate nearly pulled off a nifty Christmas surprise, but Albany outlasted the Raiders over the final 10 minutes to claim a 64-50 decision here Sunday. The Great Danes, who went 27-4 overall last season and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-dGu","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}