While many students were relaxing at home for four leisurely weeks, the women’s basketball team was doing quite the op­posite. With eight games over the holiday break, the ladies were kept busy with a grueling schedule. They started the series of games with a win against NJIT. Feeling strong after the game, they headed into a couple of disappointing losses before an amazing contest against Bucknell. With a final score of 73-66, the ladies pulled off an incredible win that boosted moral and set the team back on track to continue their regular season play.

The Raiders had a 25-9 run against Bucknell in the last eight minutes, turn­ing the game around in Colgate’s favor. First-year guard Missy Repoli scored a career high of 14 points with senior cen­ter Tricia Oakes helping the team with her second double-double of the season. When time ran out, Oakes’s tally capped at 11 points and 11 rebounds. The Raid­ers were able to force 17 turnovers against the Bison, helping add 27 points to the Raiders’ scoreboard.

On January 14, the Raiders took on Lehigh in the most exciting game so far this season. After two overtimes, the Raid­ers were defeated, but they didn’t go down easily and the unbelievable fight to the finish resulted in great basketball. With a score of 85-82, the Lehigh Mountain Hawks walked away with the “W,” but Colgate’s efforts did not go unnoticed. The Raiders shot 40.6 percent from the floor while the Mountain Hawks were held to 38 percent. Colgate lost the game in turnovers and in rebounds. Although they returned home without a win, the Raiders played a great game and showed their cohesion as a team.

With the last two games against Army and Navy both resulting in losses (54-61 and 52-61, respectively), the next game against Lafayette College is important. Both teams are coming off two-game los­ing streaks. Colgate looks confident. La­fayette lost to Lehigh in their last game by 13 points, but even so, the Raiders need to focus on turnovers and defense in order to pull out a win on the 25th. With Oakes coming out of the Navy game with 17 points and fellow senior Kelly Korkowski with 7 rebounds, the Raiders are relying on them to lead the team to a victory against Lafayette Col­lege. The game will be held at Lafayette at 7 p.m. on January 25, with the next home game for the Raiders on January 28 against Holy Cross.

Contact Katie Rydell at [email protected].