OPENING TIP
* Lafayette will hope to use a loud crowd of Easton Area School District fifth- and sixth-grade students to upend defending Patriot League champion Colgate on Wednesday morning at Kirby. The contest is the first ever School Day game in the program's history.
* The Leopards look to become the first team this season to hand Colgate a conference loss as the Raiders, preseason league favorites, enter the game at 4-0 in conference action. A win would give the Maroon and White  its first three-game win streak since a five-game surge through the latter part of non-league action.
* Lafayette plays three of its next four games on the road, traveling to Navy on Saturday at 4 p.m.

LAST TIME OUT
Toughness and determination personify Lafayette's effort on Saturday afternoon in Baltimore as the Leopards fought through a cold shooting performance to grind out a 65-62 victory over Loyola.

The win matched the Leopards' win total from a year ago, their 10th of the season overall, and squared up their Patriot League mark at 2-2 through the early slate. It also handed Loyola its first home loss of the 2019-20 season, dropping the Greyhounds to 9-8 on the year and 1-3 in conference action.

Co-captains Lukas Jarrett and Justin Jaworski made the winning plays in the final 30 seconds for the Maroon and White. Jarrett swatted Isaiah Hart's effort at a winner and Jaworski finished a transition layup through a foul to put Lafayette up three with less than two seconds left to all but seal the deal.

Lafayette, entering the game tops in the Patriot League and 11th in the nation in three-point shooting, had a highly-uncharacteristic day from that standpoint, making just 6-of-32 from distance (18.8%), but still found a way to win. The Leopards' three best shooters in Jaworski, junior E.J. Stephens and sophomore Tyrone Perry went a combined 4-for-23 from three-point range.

Freshman Leo O'Boyle helped pick up the slack with the best performance of his inaugural campaign. The rookie hit 5-of-9 from the floor for a season-best 14 points with six rebounds, including a pair on the offensive end.

O'Boyle led four Leopards finishing in double-figure scoring, followed by 12 apiece from senior co-captain Myles Cherry and Jaworski, and 11 from Jarrett. Jarrett and Jaworski each dished out five assists and Jarrett added two blocks and five rebounds to his stat line.

LAST MEETING
Lafayette did everything it could to knock off the eventual Patriot League champions on March 2, 2019 at Kirby Sports Center, but the Raiders pulled away late on the free-throw line to down the Maroon and White by a score of 76-70.

The Maroon and White gave Colgate all it could handle for 30 minutes, leading at halftime by a 31-26 score and by a six-point margin, 52-46, with less than 11 minutes to play. Then came the Raiders' response, using a 17-3 run over a five-minute stretch to swing the game in their favor, up 63-55 with 5:34 left.

Lafayette fought back to tie it twice on threes from Alex Petrie and Justin Jaworski in the final two minutes, sending the game to the deciding stretch at 68-68. A triple from Colgate's Will Rayman at the 45-second mark and 5-for-6 for the visitors from the foul line to close it out thwarted the Leopards' comeback.

Four different Lafayette players finished in double-figure scoring, led by a game-high 21 from Jaworski on 4-of-9 from distance. Paulius Zalys and Petrie added 16 each, while E.J. Stephens scored 10 with a career-high nine rebounds. 

The Leopards went 23-of-52 from the floor on the afternoon (44.2%) and hit 9-of-27 from distance (33.3%), but uncharacteristically struggled from the foul line, hitting just 62.5 percent from the stripe (15-of-24). Colgate went 23-for-56 overall (41.1%) and 9-of-22 from distance (40.9%), making 21-of-26 from the free-throw line. 

Rapolas Ivanauskas led the Raiders offensively with 15 points, while Dana Batt, Malcolm Regisford and Jack Ferguson added 12, 11 and 11, respectively. The win clinched Colgate the Patriot League regular-season title and the top spot in the Patriot League Tournament.

THOUSAND ISLAND
With his 19-point effort in the win over Holy Cross on Jan. 8, junior Justin Jaworski became the 46th player in Lafayette men's basketball history to record more than 1,000 career points. Jaworski has netted 1,022 total points in his two-plus seasons of work and sits just 37 points outside the top-40 scorers in program history. 

THE SKINNY ON THE RAIDERS
The defending Patriot League champion and preseason favorite to repeat, Colgate has done nothing but justify those regards this season, entering Wednesday with the only undefeated league mark remaining at 4-0 and an overall record of 13-4. The Raiders boast a win on the road at Cincinnati in mid-December (67-66) and three of their four losses have come against high-major opponents, falling to Clemson (81-68), Syracuse (70-54) and Auburn (91-62) early in the year.  Head coach Matt Langel's squad has won 12 of their last 13 outings with their only set-back during that stretch an overtime defeat on the road at Niagara (93-82). 

Preseason All-Patriot League selections Jordan Burns and Rapolas Ivanauskas have been productive once again for a balanced unit with all five starters averaging more than nine points per contest. Burns and Ivanauskas put up 14.7 and 13.2 points per game, respectively, followed by Nelly Cummings at 11.8 per night, Will Rayman with 10.5 per outing and Tucker Richardson's 9.8 per contest. Rayman and Ivanauskas pace the Raiders on the glass, each averaging more than seven boards per game.

FOR THE KIDS
The early start for Wednesday's contest is unusual for the Maroon and White as this is the first school day game in the program's history. More than 1,200 fifth- and sixth-grade students from Easton Area School District will be in attendance as the Leopards aim to knock off the defending Patriot League champions. 

Set to arrive around 9:15 a.m., fifth-grade students will participate in organized activity with a number of different Lafayette athletics teams in both Kirby Sports Center Arena and Kamine Gymnasium, learning about the college experience, physical fitness and leadership until about 10:30 a.m. From there, they'll transition to the arena, where they'll find their seats and be joined by the sixth-grade class, eating lunch and taking in the game action. Following the conclusion of the contest, the sixth-grade students will remain for programming with Lafayette's men's basketball players and coaches for about an hour before returning to their respective schools. 

O'BOYLE RULES
Freshman Leo O'Boyle has hit his stride since entering conference play, averaging 6.0 more points in league contests than he did over the non-league slate. O'Boyle has been the biggest beneficiary of the transfer of Isaac Suffren in terms of minutes, up to 13.6 per outing in Patriot League contests. The rookie is putting up 7.5 points per game through four conference contests, including a season-best and team-high 14 points on 5-of-9 from the field and a season-high six rebounds in the win over Loyola on Saturday. 

O'Boyle isn't the only Leopard to step up his game once the conference schedule arrived as senior co-captain Lukas Jarrett and junior E.J. Stephens have each upped their production in league play. Stephens is up to 14.3 points per game after averaging 10.8 in the non-conference slate, while Jarrett went from 8.5 to 10.3 points per outing at the start of the new year.