Patriot League Quarterfinal Recap: Top four seeds advance

Although the scores may indicate a boring night in the Patriot League, numbers alone don’t do the quarterfinal games justice. The night ended with No. 1 Bucknell, No. 2 BU, No. 3 Lehigh and No. 4 Navy all advancing to the semifinals. What happened in between wasn’t so clear-cut.

Bucknell 78, Army 62

Three-pointers and turnovers proved to be the difference between the Bison and Knights. While the Bison shot 40 percent from deep (thanks to four threes from Stephen Brown and three from Kimbal Mackenzie), the Knights shot just 30 percent. Army turned the ball over 15 times against Bucknell’s 11, even though the Black Knights outrebounded the Bison. For Bucknell, Brown led the way with 20 points, and Nana Foulland also had a huge effort with 13 points and 13 rebounds. The Bison will play No. 4 Navy on Sunday.

Navy 49, Holy Cross 42

Though Navy shot a paltry 14.3 percent from behind the arc and only put up 49 points, it was able to win the No. 4/No. 5 matchup against Holy Cross. Sophomore forward George Kiernan had perhaps his best game of the season for the Midshipmen, with 18 points. This matched a career high for the sophomore. He also pulled in nine rebounds, as did center Eric Alade. The Crusaders’ Malachi Alexander and Robert Champion turned the ball over a combined nine times, which simply was too much to pull the slight upset. Navy meets No. 1 seed Bucknell on Sunday.

Lehigh 79, Colgate 72

Though they were trailing into the second half, the Mountain Hawks found a way to dig deep and overcome a young, feisty Colgate team. Forwards Tom Rivard and Will Rayman combined for 35 points for the Raiders, but Tim Kempton and guard Austin Price did better for the Mountain Hawks, combing for 47. Price hit four threes and Kempton pulled down 10 rebounds to lead Lehigh. The Mountain Hawks get BU next in a fun match up, but be sure to look out for Colgate next year (the Raiders rank 252nd in KenPom experience).

Boston University 64, Loyola Maryland 60

The closest of the quarterfinal games came down to the final minutes, but it was clear that BU was the better team. The Terriers struggled in many ways Thursday, shooting 15 percent from deep and turning it over 18 times. However, through it all, they kept to their game and shot 50 percent from the field overall while playing strong defense. Andre Walker had 27 for the Greyhounds ,while Justin Alston of BU had 11 points and seven rebounds. Kyle Foreman played even better, shooting 5-for-7 to bring in 12 points, and the win for the Terriers. They get No. 3 Lehigh Sunday in the semifinals.