The Colgate men's basketball team played many hard-fought games throughout the past couple of weeks and came away with victo­ries against both Dartmouth and Longwood. Most recently, the Raiders beat Dartmouth 67-64 at home following a tough home loss against American University. In the winning effort against Dartmouth, junior center Nick Pascale scored 14 points to go along with five blocked shots and seven boards. It was the first home victory for the Raiders. Both junior forward Yaw Gyawu and junior guard Mike Venezia contributed with 11 points for Colgate in its second win of the new year.

The Raiders opened up Patriot League play with a loss against Army at home on Jan­uary 8, 73-66. Though they lost this game, the Raiders were able to cut a 17-point defi­cit to two points before eventually falling in their first league opening loss since the 2003- 2004 season. On January 12, Colgate fell to Lafayette on the road 75-64. In that game Gyawu scored a team-high 18 points, but it was not enough to defeat Lafayette at the Kirby Sports Center. Junior forward Sterling Melville was perfect from the field in which he tallied a personal season high 13 points, but Lafayette built a lead on the Raiders and never looked back.

Colgate kept the game close against Amer­ican University on Saturday, but eventually fell 66-57 in a game where they allowed the opponent to surge in the second half of the game. Despite a record of 2-15, many of the Raiders' losses were similar to this in which they played close games, but failed to come out with a victory. Gyawu scored 19 points for the Raiders, while center Pascale scored a career-high 17 points to go along with 8 rebounds in the loss against the American University eagles. Though the Raiders lost at home to American, Pascale is asserting him­self as a fixture in this offense with a com­bined 31 points, 15 rebounds and 7 blocked shots over the past two games for Colgate. The Raiders can only hope that he builds upon this and helps the team end the season on a positive note.

The Raiders have played well during games this season against stiff competition. Senior guard Joe Hoban contributed with eight points and eight boards in a winning effort against Dartmouth this past Monday.

"Over break we played pretty well as a team, but just couldn't finish ball games," first-year Pat Moore said. "In a few games we dug ourselves holes in the first half and made great efforts to fight back, but just couldn't find ways to win at the end. At this point, we don't really care about moral victories though, so our expectations are first and foremost to start winning games. We have what it takes, but just need to keep at it," Moore said.

The win against Dartmouth may be what the Raiders needed to get going as a team. It is time for the team to close out these games, because playing com­petitively is simply not enough. These players realize that they are a good team and have potential. Despite a 2-15 record, the Raiders have plenty of games left against Patriot League op­ponents and will try and prove to Col­gate fans and themselves that they can close out games in a winning fashion.

"We played a great game in a win at Longwood which has given us much needed confidence going into league play," junior guard Mike Venezia said. "Our focus and intensity in practice and in games has definitely improved since break began, as we were able to focus solely on our progress individually and collectively. We are expecting to surprise some people in the Patriot League as we get a few more wins under our belt. We look at these league games as a new sea­son and one where we expect to have a lot of success," Venezia said.

Venezia was a spark for the Raiders in their win against Dartmouth as he scored 11 points and dished out three assists. He missed a few games this season due to in­juries in which the Raiders missed him, but will hopefully provide the necessary spark to propel the basketball team to finishing off well.

The 15 losses have been accounted for, now it is time for the Raiders to disregard the past and look to the future. This team knows it can compete.

"We don't want to get ahead of our­selves, but when we start winning these close ball games, we'll be able to accom­plish what we set ourselves out to do since day one and that is to host a home playoff game, which will put us in a great position to win the Patriot League Championship," Hoban stated.

The Raiders can only build upon their win against Dartmouth and they look to do so against Lehigh and Bucknell this week.

Last night, the Colgate men's basket­ball hosted the defending Patriot League Champions Lehigh Mountain Hawks looking for its first conference victory of the campaign. Despite trailing by as many as eight points with under five minutes left in the game, the Raiders found a way to come through and achieve a potential season-changing triumph.

Led by Rolls and Melville, who be­tween them scored 13 of Colgate's last 17 points, 'Gate erased a 73-65 deficit at the 15:08 mark of the second half. After one frame of play, both teams were equal at 38 points apiece, yet Lehigh was able to surge early in the second and control the game throughout most of the half. It was only the Raiders' impressive comeback in the last few minutes that stopped them from losing their third league game of the year. For Colgate, Melville led the way with 15 points and five rebounds, while Hoban and Rolls added 13 as well fol­lowed by Venezia with 12. For the Moun­tain Hawks, C.J. McCollum, the reign­ing Patriot League Rookie and Player of the Year led the way with 24 points.

November was a tough month for the Colgate men's hockey team, as they began with a 0-5-1 record in ECAC Hockey play, which was capped off by falling to Brown 5-2 and to No. 5 Yale 6-4. Three days later, the Raiders traveled to Niagara Falls, NY to take on the Purple Eagles from Niagara University. Despite outplaying its oppo­nent throughout the entirety of the contest, Colgate fell 4-2. Four days later, the Raiders attempted to pick up the pieces of a dismal month by taking on the Cornell Big Red at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, but once again failed as they were defeated 4-3 by the Ithacans.

The only positive to take from a month in which Colgate went 0-7-1 is the strong play put forth by first-year Chris Wagner, who scored three goals in the month, and sopho­more forward Robbie Bourdon, who is cur­rently on a six-game point streak and leads the team in points with five goals and six assists.

"I have not really changed much about my approach to the game," Bourdon said. "Throughout the first few games, I stressed a lot because of the high expectations I had for myself. Recently, I've just had a better view towards hockey in general, as well as worked on preparing myself for a more physical role during the games."

The first period of the game against Brown saw both teams cautiously studying each other while at the same time trying to find weaknesses in the opponent's game plan. The Raiders were harmed by bouts of indisci­pline, providing the Bears–who boasted one of the top power plays in the country going into the game–with a two-man advantage. Brown scored at 9:32 and took a 1-0 after 20 minutes of play.

Colgate was able to answer back at the 8:32 mark of the second stanza, when junior forward Matt Firman scored his first goal of the season assisted by classmates defense­man Corbin McPherson and forward Austin Mayer. Twenty-one seconds after the tally, however, the Bears were awarded a power play which soon became a five-on-three situ­ation and once again cashed in to take a 2-1 lead going into the third. From then on, the Raiders lost any kind of control they could have held over the game.

Halfway through the third period, Brown scored a short-handed goal, and soon after added another one to take a commanding 4-1 lead with less than five minutes left on the clock. Not even Bourdon's tally at 17:15 was enough to produce a comeback, as Brown took the victory, which was capped off with an empty-net goal.

The following evening, Colgate put forth its best effort of the month against its most formidable opponent thus far this season in Yale. The Raiders quickly took a 1-0 lead 59 seconds into the game, as senior captain Bri­an Day scored 'Gate's first power play goal in four games. It did not take long for the Bull­dogs to knot the game at one, doing so at the 6:33 mark on a man-advantage. Yale pro­ceeded to take a 3-1 lead in the next minute and a half with another power play goal and an even-strength tally. The Bulldogs outshot Colgate 21-8 throughout the period.

The Raiders were able to answer back ear­ly in the second, with two goals by Bourdon and junior forward Nick Prockow in the first four minutes to even the game at three goals each. A flurry of goals halfway through the frame saw Yale take a 6-3 lead going into the final 20 minutes of play.

A goal by first-year forward Mike Mc­Cann at 7:19 gave the Raiders hope for a comeback, but despite outshooting them 15-2 throughout the period, Colgate was unable to close the game.

"We really needed to stay out of the penalty box in both games," Bourdon said. "Penalties swing momentum in favor of the other team. There is no doubt in my mind, even with our record as it stands, that neither Yale nor Brown will be looking forward to playing us the next time around."

Three days later, the Raiders traveled to Lewiston, NY to take on the Niagara Purple Eagles. The first period saw both teams cre­ate good scoring chances, but both goalten­ders stood strong and kept their opponents scoreless through 20 minutes of play. In the second period, Colgate drew first blood when Bourdon scored halfway through the period on the power play. The Purple Eagles, however, were able to draw even with three minutes left in the stanza. In the third frame, Niagara scored early to take a 2-1 lead two minutes in, but the Raiders answered back halfway through, on the power play. Thirty-three seconds later, however, the Purple Ea­gles retook the lead and by adding an empty-net goal with 42 seconds left in the contest, secured a 4-2 victory over Colgate.

Last Saturday, the Raiders took on archri­val Cornell at the Prudential Center. The Big Red controlled the game early on and had the best scoring opportunities, but junior goaltender Alex Evin stopped every shot he faced in the first period. Halfway through the first, Colgate was able to find its groove and Day gave the team a 1-0 lead over Cornell heading into the second period.

In the second, the Raiders maintained the momentum and proceeded to outplay the Big Red throughout the stanza. Mayer gave the team a 2-0 lead at 9:52, but it was quick­ly cut back to one by Cornell. Two minutes later, however, Wagner scored his third of the season to give Colgate a 3-1 lead heading into the second intermission.

The third period saw the Raiders collapse once again. Mistakes on the Colgate defen­sive end allowed the Big Red to tie the game during the first six minutes and a power play goal at the 11:31 mark saw Cornell clinch its third straight victory over Colgate.

"Mental breakdowns happen from bad plays, unnecessary penalties and laziness," Bourdon said. "In our last three games, we took leads and still lost because we beat ourselves. Cornell and Niagara were not necessarily better teams than us, but we just let them be for a period and they took advantage of it."

This coming Saturday the Raiders will travel to West Point, NY to take on the Army Black Knights. A week later, they will host Niagara before traveling south to Pennsylva­nia to take on Robert Morris University. Lat­er this month, Colgate will play its final two non-conference games of the season, which include a tilt against defending national champion Boston College at the Dartmouth Tournament. In the first two weeks of Janu­ary, the Raiders will return to conference play before classes.