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Patriot League Tournament Day One: Colgate, Lafayette Win

The first night of conference tournament season saw the Patriot League take center stage with two opening round games.

Matt Langel and Colgate are moving on to the next round of the Patriot League Tournament.
Matt Langel and Colgate are moving on to the next round of the Patriot League Tournament.
Nate Shron
Team First Half Second Half Final
Navy Midshipmen 21 30 51
Colgate Raiders 27 30 57

Oh, Navy. The Mids are one of the scrappier teams you'll find in college basketball but when they aren't connecting from the outside it is tough to watch them play. On this night Navy managed just 6-for-27 shooting from the outside and 20-for-57 overall but found enough offense to make it interesting down the stretch before Colgate was able to pull out a 57-51 win.

The Raiders led by 10 points with 5:18 to play after Damon Sherman-Newsome finished an and-one for three of his 16 points on the night. A combination of poor free throw shooting and embaressing rebounding helped Navy cut the lead to as few as three with 22 seconds left at 52-49. After a 1-for-2 trip to the line by Matt McMullen extended the lead to four, Brandon Venturini (26 points) and Zach Fong traded misses before Venturini finally banked one home with 13 seconds to play.

Sherman-Newsome went 2-for-2 to keep the lead at two possessions, but a Venturini miss on the way back sealed the Mids' season and gave Colgate the win, punching their ticket for Washington D.C.

Colgate won the last time they played American, beating the Eagles 63-60 in D.C. to earn a split with the league's No. 2 seed. American won the first meeting 69-62.

Team First Half Second Half Final
Lafayette Leopards 42 42 84
Loyola, Md. Greyhounds 35 36 71

Navy and Lafayette spent the lion's share of the season on the bottom of our weekly Patriot League Power Rankings, but then Seth Hinrichs came back from injury and everything turned around. The Leopards have won seven of their last 10 games, including Monday night's win over Loyola. Hinrichs scored a team-high 22 points to lead a group of four Lafayette starters in double digits.

Joey Ptasinski (18 points), Nick Lindner (14 points, 5 assists), and Bryce Scott (12 points) all did their part to combat a Dylon Cormier-less Loyola team that hasn't been the same since its top scorer went down. That being said, Jarred Jones did his best Cormier impression with 28 points thanks to 10-for-12 shooting from the free throw line.

The Leopards advance to face the No. 1 seeded Boston University on Wednesday at Agganis Arena. The Terriers beat Lafayette both times, handily, including once with Hinrichs in the fold.