Jan. 27, 2014

EASTON, Pa. - Joey Ptasinski's game-high 21 points were not enough as the Leopards fell to Colgate 75-68 on Monday night at Kirby Sports Center. Lafayette pulled within three in the final 30 seconds, but the Raiders knocked down their free throws down the stretch to hold off the comeback bid.

Ptasinski's 21 points came on 8-of-10 shooting from the field, including 5-for-6 from three. Bryce Scott finished with 12 points, followed by Nick Lindner's 11 and Monty Boykins career-best 10 points. Austin Tillotson led four Colgate players in double figures with 16 points, followed by Murphy Burnatowski's 15 points. Damon Sherman-Newsome finished with a double-double, 14 points and 10 boards. Luke Roh added 12 points and eight rebounds for the visitors.

Colgate (8-12, 2-7) finished with 40 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive end, while Lafayette grabbed 30. The Raiders also capitalized on 27 trips to the free throw line by making 23, while Lafayette (4-16, 0-9) was limited to 6-of-10 from the stripe.

Neither side opened up a comfortable advantage through the game's first 10 minutes and Colgate had a 24-19 edge after Roh's layup. From there, Lafayette ripped off nine straight points starting with Boykins' layup on the break. Ptasinski got to the rim for two, then Lindner hit a jumper in transition along the baseline before Ptasinski's third trey of the half capped the run and Lafayette led 28-24.

Colgate responded with a 12-0 stretch of its own that featured six points in the paint and a pair of threes by Sherman-Newsome and the Raiders took a 38-30 lead into the locker room after scoring 14 of the final 16 before intermission.

Ptasinski scored 16 of his 21 points prior to halftime as the Leopards were 13-of-31 in the period (41.9 percent). Colgate made half of its shots (16-of-32) and was paced by Roh's 5-of-5 and 10 points.

By the first media timeout of the second half, Lafayette had the deficit down to three (41-38) after Seth Hinrichs' baseline turnaround and Boykins' triple. Two straight buckets by the Raiders pushed their lead back to seven, before Ptasinski and Tillotson traded threes and Colgate led 48-41. Four straight at the line increased the lead to 51-41, Colgate's largest of the night, before Scott's three midway through the half made it a seven-point game.

An elbow jumper by Burnatowski and then a pair at the line by the Colgate senior had the visitors up 57-46 with 6:35 to go. A Hinrichs three brought the Leopards back within single digits, but Burnatowski's tip in after Hinrichs misfired in transition put it back to 10 points with five minutes remaining.

The Leopards cut it to five points on a Lindner three-point play and a layup by Trist but Sherman-Newsome scored on a floater and Roh's layup following a Lindner miss put the game out of reach as Colgate led 63-54 with less than three minutes to play.

Scott's layup with 28.9 seconds left cut the deficit to three (71-68), but Tillotson sank both free throws to seal the victory.

The Leopards open the second half of Patriot League play on Saturday when Navy comes to College Hill. Lafayette Sports Network will have coverage of the game beginning at 2 p.m.

Game Notes:

Seth Hinrichs returned to the lineup after sitting out 10 games with a left knee injury. Zach Rufer missed his fourth straight game with a concussion.

Each coaching staff wore sneakers with their suits in support of Coaches vs. Cancer.

Lafayette set season lows in free throw attempts (10) and makes (6).