The men’s basketball team lost a defensive struggle last Saturday against Army, 59-57. The loss ended Colgate’s seven-game winning streak against the Black Knights. Colgate outscored Army, 25-23 in the first half. The game was close throughout, but the Black Knights held a five-point lead with 40 seconds left, and it looked like they were going to walk away as winners. However, junior captain Kyle Roemer hit a three to slash the deficit to two and was given a chance to tie the score after Army missed two free throws.

“Kyle (16 points) is just such a great competitor,” Head Coach Emmett Davis said. “It looked like we were in deep trouble at that point [with 40 seconds left]. The three was made with a man in his face. Then on the next possession he took it to the basket, got his shot blocked, got the rebound, and hit a reverse lay-up to tie the game.”

The tying score came with a lucky 13 seconds on the clock and evened the game at 52. Army and Colgate both had chances to win the game in regulation, but neither team could capitalize.

Army fired the opening salvo of overtime as Jarell Brown hit a big three. Senior Kendall Chones, who had a monster day with 20 points, laid it in to cut the deficit to one.

“He’s really a strong player down in the post,” Davis said about Chones. “He draws a lot of attention, gets double and triple teamed and is still able to score down there.”

On the next Colgate possession, junior Willie Morse drained a three to give Colgate a 57-55 lead. Army later tied the game with two from the charity stripe after a costly offensive rebound. Both teams missed chances to grab the lead, but Army grabbed possession with under ten seconds left. Brown attempted a two-pointer this time, but Army pulled down yet another offensive rebound and took a time out with a single second on the clock. Brown redeemed himself by hitting an 11-foot jumper as time expired to give Army the 59-57 win. Colgate somehow gave up three offensive rebounds and committed two turnovers in the final 1:34 of regulation. Rebounding and turnovers were an issue all game as they have been all season. Colgate gave up 12 offensive boards and committed 20 turnovers in this contest.

“When teams penetrate and we have to rotate, we haven’t done a good job of blocking out,” Coach Davis said.

Coverage of last night’s Lafayette game can be found in next week’s issue. The Raiders play a noon home game on Sunday against American that will be televised on ESPNU. Colgate will then host Lehigh on Wednesday night.