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HAMILTON – Colgate led for most of Tuesday's game against Holy Cross, but saw the Crusaders record a steal and a basket in the final 25 seconds to earn a 69-68 come-from-behind victory.

Despite leading by a game-high 12 points in the first half, the Raiders weren't able to close out the game as the Crusaders scored six of the final nine points to snag the win.

With the game tied at 65-all, Justin Burrell got his hands on an inbounds pass before feeding it over to Eric Green for the bucket, which gave the Crusaders the two-point edge with 25 seconds remaining. Colgate tried to answer on the opposite side of the court, but a missed 3-pointer forced the Raiders to foul. After two made free throws it was a four-point game and Colgate had one last opportunity at tying the score. Senior captain Murphy Burnatowski drained a 3-pointer with three seconds left, but it was too little too late, as the Raiders dropped their 12th contest this season by single-digits, including all but three of their league games.

Colgate (8-14, 2-9 PL) received a top performance from Burnatowski, who posted his 16th double-digit game of the season, seventh in a row. The Waterloo, Ont., native also notched a team-high five boards in the contest. Ethan Jacobs and Chad Johnson recorded 10 points each to add to Colgate's final total. Johnson went 4-of-7 on the night for his season-high 10 points. Junior Luke Roh also pulled down a team-high five rebounds while Austin Tillotson handed out a game-high seven assists.

The Raiders went 28-of-48 for their 58 percent shooting from the floor and hit nine of their 17 attempts from downtown for their 53 percent shooting from long.

Holy Cross (13-10, 7-4 PL) notched four players in double-figures, with Malcolm Miller leading the way with 17 points. Dave Dudzinski added 14 points while Green and Burrell chipped in 11 points each. Malachi Alexander also led all players on the boards with a game-high seven rebounds.

The Crusaders scored 13 points off of Raider turnovers while also recording 10 points off of second chance opportunities. They also slightly outrebounded the Raiders 25-21 but saw Colgate hand out 18 assists compared to their 11.

Colgate started the game on a 7-0 run to take the early 7-0 lead. Johnson had five of Colgate's seven points during that stretch.

Tillotson then drained a 3-pointer to create a 12-point margin between the teams, at 21-9, which forced Holy Cross to call a timeout with 12:57 remaining.

After the Crusaders started the half shooting 2 of 5 from the floor they answered hitting 11 of their next 13 shots to close the gap to within three, at 34-31.

Colgate responded with a Jacobs' jumper to push the lead to six points and neither squad was able to score in the final 2:11, which sent the Raiders into the break up 36-31.

The Raiders kept the Crusaders scoreless for the final three minutes and 30 seconds of the first half and opening two minutes of the second half to quickly extended their lead up to 10, at 50-40.

Holy Cross responded with a 9-1 run, though, to bring the game within one, at 53-52 with less than 10 minutes to play.

The team's exchanged baskets before the Crusaders took their first lead in the game following a good dunk by Miller with 5:10 remaining.

Colgate then used a 6-3 run over the next three minutes to hold the lead by two, at 65-63 but a good layup from Miller with 1:16 to play knotted the score at 65-all.

After the Crusaders only missed free throw of the game, Colgate had a chance to take back its edge but was unable to convert as Burrell's steal and then pass to Green for the basket gave Holy Cross the two point lead with 25 second remaining. 

Colgate had two chances in the final seconds but was unable to pull even, as it dropped its fourth game in the last five outings.

The Raiders are back on the court Saturday when they travel to American to face off with the Eagles at 2 p.m. in Bender Arena.

NOTES: Despite Colgate's tough outcome in the game, the Raiders hosted yet another successful LGBTQ Awareness Game ...