Hamilton, NY — The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Raiders (10-8, PL 2-3) will close out the first half of its Patriot League schedule this weekend with a pair of Patriot League road games. On Friday night, the Raiders will visit Bucknell (6-12, PL 2-3), before playing at Lehigh (11-7, PL 4-1) on Sunday afternoon. Tip-off against Bucknell is 7:45 p.m. at the Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, PA.
This will be the 80th meeting between 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and Bucknell with the Bison holding a 42-37 edge in the series. Last season, these two Patriot League foes split their home-and-home series with Bucknell taking a 62-42 decision in Hamilton, before the Raiders bounced back with a 64-56 win in Lewisburg.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø won two out of three games last weekend, beginning with a 70-60 non-conference win over Dartmouth, before splitting a pair of Patriot League home games. American edged 51³Ô¹ÏÍø 74-71, before the Raiders held off Navy, 91-84.
Bucknell has taken three wins in its last four games, and has won three straight home games. The Bison split last weekend’s Patriot League series, defeating Army, 56-23, then losing against league-leader Lafayette, 81-72.
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 two games with a knee injury, is the third leading scorer and rebounder (5.6) in the Patriot League. Also in double-digits are senior guard Mark Linebaugh (12.9) and sophomore guard Alvin Reed (12.4). 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 8.8 points per game (20th in PL).
Reed leads the team in assists with 65 and steals with 25. Linebaugh is second in assists with 54, followed by Zidar with 41. Freshman Kendall Chones leads in blocked shots with eight.
Linebaugh is the top free throw shooter in the Patriot League making .893 percent of his shots (11th in the nation), followed by Blue (.825) and Reed (.769).
COLGATE NOTES: 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is the top free throw shooting team in the Patriot League making .743 of its attempts … The Raiders are second in scoring (73.0 ppg), third in field goal percentage (.455), third in 3-point field goal percentage (.367), third in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.345), second in assists (14.61 pg), and first in turnover/assist ratio (1.02).
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