March 9, 2008
Center Valley, Pa. - American and Colgate both built big early leads and held on in the second half to post victories in the semifinal round of the Patriot League Men's Basketball Tournament on Sunday, with the Eagles knocking off Army, 72-60 and the Raiders defeating Bucknell, 54-40.
The Eagles and Raiders advance to play in the Patriot League Championship, which is set for 4:45 p.m. on Friday at American's Bender Arena and will be televised live on ESPN2.
Both teams advance to play in their fourth Patriot League Championship contest. The Raiders made their appearances from 1994-96, and won their two titles in 1995 and 1996. American played in its three contests from 2002-04, and has never won a League title.
With American's victory, the No. 1 seed has advanced to the Championship in each season of the 18-year history of the Patriot League. The Eagles (20-11, 10-4 Patriot League) used a 17-2 run early in the game to claim an 18-4 lead, and stretched the advantage as high as 17 points before claiming a 32-20 lead at halftime.
The No. 5 seed Black Knights (14-16, 6-8) made a run in the second half, scoring nine straight points to get the deficit down to 51-45 with 7:06 remaining. Army came as close as four points with 4:38 to play, but American answered with an 11-3 run to pull away for good.
Garrison Carr led the Eagles with 23 points, converting on 5-of-10 shots from beyond the arc and all eight foul shots. Nick Hendra added 11 points and Jordan Nichols scored 10, with both players coming off the bench. The Eagles held a 34-17 edge on the glass and hit 23-of-28 foul shots and 9-of-20 three-pointers. American won all three of its contests against Army this season. The Eagles will try to become the 14th No. 1 seed to win the Patriot League Tournament on Friday.
Jarell Brown led Army with 15 points, and Cleveland Richard and Josh Miller each added 12. The Black Knights forced 17 turnovers and hit 20-of-24 from the line, but connected on 4-of-23 three-pointers. Army finishes its season in the semifinals for the second year in a row.
Colgate (18-13, 7-7) got off to a very fast start as well, opening up a 10-2 lead in the first seven minutes and adding to it throughout the first half. The Raiders eventually settled on a 27-10 lead at the break, holding Bucknell to 3-of-13 from the field in the first half.
The Bison (12-19, 6-8) chipped away in the second half, getting the deficit to nine points in less than eight minutes of play. They cut the Colgate lead to 40-36 with 3:23 left to play, but the Raiders pushed the advantage back to six on a jumper by Kyle Roemer with 1:56 left. They scored the next six points to stretch the lead to 12, and went up by as many as 16 while closing the game with a 14-4 run.
Kyle Roemer scored 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting for the Raiders, and is now averaging 28.5 points per game through the first two rounds of the Tournament. Kendall Chones was the only other player in double figures with 11 points. The Raiders had a big edge in the turnover battle, forcing 22 Bucknell miscues while committing only eight of their own. Colgate got the win after being swept in the season series by the Bison. Colgate is the sixth No. 3 seed to advance to the Patriot League Championship, and first since 1999. No seed lower than No. 3 has advanced to the title game, and none lower than No. 2 has ever won the title.
Bucknell had two players in double figures, as Justin Castleberry scored 12 and Darren Mastropaolo added 11. The Bison only dished out three assists, and struggled with a 2-for-14 night from three-point range. They were denied in their quest to become the first Patriot League team to advance to four consecutive title games.
Tickets for the Patriot League Men's Basketball Championship game at American are available by clicking here
