On Wednesday, March 7, the Colgate men’s basketball team faced off against the Bucknell Bison, competing in their first Patriot League championship game since the 2008 season. Unfortunately, the Raiders fell 83-54 to the Bison, the defending league champs.

With a home-court advantage, top-seeded Bucknell came out with the encouragement of nearly 4,000 fans, which helped propel them to victory. With this energy, Bucknell set out to build a strong lead early on. By halftime, a late second-quarter run had boosted the score to 35-21 in favor of the home team. Throughout the second half, the Bison continued to pull ahead of the Raiders, ultimately defeating the visitors by a thirty-point margin.

“I’m proud of my guys. I’m proud of our season, of our fight and our ability to get here,” head coach Matt Langel said.

With this loss, Colgate’s overall record moved to 19-13. The Raiders achieved a historic number of wins this season, tying the record for the program’s 1927-28 season. Bucknell, who will now move on to the NCAA tournament, improved to 25-9. In the coming days, the Raiders will find out whether or not they will advance to the tournament as well. For now, the team just wants to focus on the success of the season.

“Coach Langel mentioned that [moving on to the NCAA tournament] is a possibility. It’s hard to process that right now; we just had a tough loss. But we will handle that in the next few days,” senior guard Sean O’Brien said.