Women’s Basketball Wins Final Home Game

The Raiders ended their season on a high note, winning three of their last four and making one final push for a higher seed in the Patriot League tournament. After losing to the Lafayette Leopards and beating the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, the Raiders will head into the tournament in the ninth seed and will rematch in Bethlehem a Lehigh team they just defeated.

Facing Lafayette, the Raiders made what would appear to be a blowout a close matchup. After facing a 17-point deficit midway through the first half, the Raiders did their best to claw back into the game. Cutting the lead to just nine at halftime, the Raiders continued their strong effort through the remainder of the game and lost by 11 in a competitive battle throughout the entirety of the second half. After shooting just 33 percent from beyond the arc in the first half, the Raiders shot the ball much better in the second, making 43 percent of their three-pointers and 41 percent from the field. Junior forward Carole Harris led the way for the Raiders, going 8-15 from the field and adding 10 rebounds to her 19 points on the night.

Just behind Harris were two guards in the double digits with junior Missy Repoli putting up one of her best scoring outputs of the season with 18 points. Meanwhile, senior Lauryn Kobiela scored 12 points while adding six assists.

The Raiders came back to Cotterell Court for their final home game and honored the seniors on the team. The Raiders had a special presentation for Kobiela and other seniors Catherine Lewis and Kathryn Taylor before Coach Nikki Hays Fort gave each senior the start.

Overcoming what turned out to be a difficult shooting night for the Raiders, making just 30 percent of their shots, the Raiders squeezed out a close victory against Lehigh. Colgate were led by sophomore guard Mariah Jones, who shot 9-of-18 from the field and had 25 points in just 33 minutes of play. On the boards, Harris made up for her tough shooting night with 11 rebounds. Junior forward Kelly Reid also came up with seven rebounds off the bench.

In a game where the Raiders saw a lot of shooting struggles, they hit their big shots at the free throw line when they really needed them. Colgate made 84 percent of their free throws on the day, while the Mountain Hawks struggled to make just 73 percent of theirs. This margin on free throws turned out to make a difference, as the Raiders held off Lehigh 63-61.

The Colgate win guaranteed that their first game of the Patriot League tournament would be against the same stingy Mountain Hawks team. With a victory, the Raiders would go on to face the top-ranked Navy Midshipmen in the quarterfinals.

Contact Eric Reimundat [email protected].