Box Score
Photos

HAMILTON – Senior Brandon James led Colgate to its first win of the season, defeating Marist 74-60 here Wednesday night.

Colgate advanced to 1-2 on the season after James earned double digits in scoring during the seniors final home opener on Cotterell Court. His 25 points led all scorers and he added eight rebounds. Pat Moore chipped in 15 points and Murphy Burnatowski 12 to support the Raiders' scoring. 

“Any win for us is terrific, especially at this point in the season,” head coach Matt Langel said. “It validates what the guys are doing and that's working hard and being committed to improving every day.”

Burnatowski scored all 12 of his points in just 12 minutes played.

“Murphy got into a little bit of foul trouble early and wasn't able to give us the production or the minutes that he did last weekend, but that's the name of the game,“ Langel added. “Brandon stepped up and that's what you hope from your seniors.”

Marist (0-2) saw 17 points and three rebounds from Devin Price. Adam Kemp, who eventually fouled out of the game with two minutes left, earned a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

After tying the game at six apiece in the third minute of play, the Raiders never looked back and led throughout the remainder of the game. Colgate edged the Red Foxes on the stat sheet as well by grabbing a 36-24 advantage in the paint, 12-4 in fast break points, and 22 points off turnovers. The Raiders bench also made an impact in the game, scoring 34 of the 74 points.

Burnatowski got into early foul trouble, missing most of the first half. But not before he drained Colgate's first two buckets, a pair of three-pointers.  Just a few minutes later, he stole the ball off Marist's Price and made a great pass to Moore for the easy basket.

Senior point guard Mitch Rolls, who led the team with seven assists, found James behind the arc and he downed his second three of the night to make it 29-11 with 6:30 left in the half.

On a late run by Marist, T.J. Curry earned a four-point play after he got fouled shooting a three-pointer with only 45 seconds left in the half. The Red Foxes were 8 of 21 from the floor and only 1 of 6 from the three-point line in the first half.

The Raiders were 5 of 7 from behind the arc and 16 of 29 in field goals to take the lead into halftime, 40-27. James, a Poughkeepsie native, grabbed 17 of his 25 points in the first half against his hometown college.

In the opening five minutes of the second half, both teams were trading buckets. James reached double digits midway through the second half, giving him his sixth career double-digit game.

The closest the Red Foxes came to closing the gap was at the 9:34 mark in the second half. Isaiah Morton made a layup off a fast break opportunity, cutting the lead to only 56-47.

The Raiders then went on a small run, outscoring Marist 7-0 in a three-minute span. Burnatowski was 4 of 4 from the line during that stretch, while Clayton Graham added a layup and Rolls another free throw to push the lead back too 63-47 with 7:04 left.

James had this to say after the game: “I felt confident out there tonight and my teammates played great defense. That's what we need more of this year. I feel like we've improved a lot, so hopefully we can grab more wins this season.”

Colgate has now won its last two home openers.

“While we enjoy this win, we are now looking forward to this upcoming weekend,” Langel said. “It will be a little bit of a tournament atmosphere, back to games on back-to-back nights, and we'll need great productions from all of our guys against tough competition.”

The team travels to Elon, N.C. this weekend to finish out the last two games of the EA Sports Maui Invitational Mainland Games, Saturday and Sunday. The Raiders face Elon on Saturday and either Coppin State or Florida Atlantic on Sunday. Both games are set for a 2 p.m. tip off.