Raiders surge past Cornell

HAMILTON >> Freshman Keegan Records scored a career-high 12 points to lead four Raiders in double figures and Colgate used a strong second half to surge past Cornell 66-58 on Wednesday night at Cotterell Court.

Records’ 12 points came on 6-of-8 shooting and he led the Raiders on the glass with nine rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench. Jordan Burns, Nelly Cummings, and Tucker Richardson all finishedwith 10 points. Burns chipped in with a game-high four assists in the win.

“This was a really good win for us tonight. Cornell’s record is not great, but they have played a lot of teams close. They are a well-coached teamthat is close to getting over the hump,” Colgate head coach Matt Langel said. “It was not until Ryan Moffatt came in and Keegan

Records happened to be out there thatwe started playing with the energy, determination, and passion you need to win in college basketball. As we have tried to manage expectations, some guys have gotten away fromtheir foundation so it was great to see our young guys lead the old guys tonight.”

Colgate (7- 4) came in ranked sixth in the country in 3-pointers per game (10.8), but grinded out a win despite shooting 6-of21 (28.6%) from beyond the arc. The Raiders trailed by as many as 11 in the first half before carving the deficit down to 38-33 at intermission.

Cornell (1-8) scored the first six points of the second half on a 3-of-3 start from the field to force a Colgate timeout two minutes in. The Raiders outscored the Big Red 33-14 the rest of the way, powered by a 23-2 burst to turn an 11-point deficit into a 10-point lead.

The Raiders forced six turnovers during the run and held Cornell scoreless for over eight minutes. A two-handed slam by Records off an offensive rebound was his first two of eight straight points that pulled Colgate within 44-43 midway through the half.

Richardson grabbed a defensive rebound and heaved a full-court pass to Jack Ferguson, who got a layup to fall and was fouled on his way up. He converted the traditional three-point play and Colgate had its first lead (46-44) since it was 8-7 early in the first half.

Cornell’s Terrence McBride ended the drought with a jumper inside to tie the game at 46s, but Colgate shot back with a 10-0 run to take the lead for good. Richardson buried a triple to start the spark and Ivanauskas sank two free throws to push Colgate in front 56-44.

Josh Warren scored six straight points to bring Cornell within 61-56, but that was as close as the visitors would get. Cummings and Richardson sank three of four fromthe line and a lastsecond bucket from Rayman led the Raiders to the 66-58 victory.

Cornell (1-8) got off to a red-hot 6- of- 6 start from the field and led 14-10 at the first media timeout. The visitors opened their lead to 21-10 before Colgate fired back with eight straight points. Ferguson netted a trey and connected on a turnaround jumper before a slam from Records trimmed the deficit to 2320 with just over seven minutes left in the first half.

Cummings made a nice post move and banked a layup to cut the Cornell lead to 23-22, but the Big Red shot back with six straight and a layup from Jimmy Boeheim pulled them in front 29-22 with just over four minutes remaining in the opening stanza.