Hamilton, NY — The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Raiders (10-10, PL 2-5) open the second half of their Patriot League schedule Friday night, when they play host to league leader Lafayette College (16-4, PL 7-0) at Cotterell Court. Tip-off is 8:00 p.m.
The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø-Lafayette clash is the Patriot League TV Game of the Week. The game will be shown on DIRECTV on Channel 615.
This is the 71st meeting between 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and Lafayette with the Raiders holding a 37-33 edge in the series. The Leopards have taken the last three meetings in the series, including a 97-86 decision on Jan. 10 in Easton. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø won last year’s game in Hamilton, 66-64.
For the first time this season, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø dropped back-to-back games last weekend on the road. On Friday night, Bucknell took a 61-53 decision before the Raiders dropped a 61-56 verdict on Sunday at Lehigh.
Lafayette has won seven straight games to take over first place in the Patriot League standings.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø has three players in double figures led by senior forward Howard Blue with 15.4 points per game. Blue, who has missed the last four games with a knee injury, is the fourth leading scorer and rebounder (5.6) in the Patriot League. Also in double-digits are senior guard Mark Linebaugh (12.7) and sophomore guard Alvin Reed (12.1). Linebaugh is 8th and Reed 9th in the Patriot League in scoring.
Junior center Andrew Zidar is second in rebounding in the Patriot League with 6.3 caroms per outing and is averaging 9.0 points per game (T-19th in PL).
Reed leads the team in assists with 70 and steals with 27. Linebaugh is second in assists with 60, followed by Zidar with 41. Freshman Kendall Chones leads in blocked shots with nine.
Linebaugh is the top free throw shooter in the Patriot League making .855 percent of his shots, followed by Blue (.825).
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OTHER COLGATE NOTES: 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is second in the Patriot League in free throw shooting (.723) … The Raiders are second in scoring (71.2 ppg), third in field goal percentage (.446), third in 3-point field goal percentage (.359), third in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.335), second in assists (14.35 pg), and first in turnover/assist ratio (1.01).