Hamilton, NY — The 51³Ô¹ÏÍø Raiders (8-6, PL 1-1) will be looking to carry the momentum of their victory over preseason Patriot League favorite Holy Cross into Saturday’s league road game against Army (3-11, PL 0-2). Tip-off is 3:15 p.m. at Christl Arena.
This is the 93rd meeting between 51³Ô¹ÏÍø and Army with the Cadets leading the series, 48-44. 51³Ô¹ÏÍø, however, has won seven straight games against Army, and 14 of the last 16 meetings. Last year, The Raiders swept the series winning 86-58 at home and 68-58 at West Point.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø picked up a key Patriot League victory on Wednesday night, when the Raiders defeated Holy Cross, 71-65, at Cotterell Court. The win was just the 14th time 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has defeated the Crusaders in 54 games.
Army has been struggling lately with nine straight losses including its first two league outings. The Cadets were defeated by Holy Cross, 60-32, and Lafayette, 76-40.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø has three players in double figures led by senior forward Howard Blue with 16.9 points per game. Blue, who has been in double figures in 12 games, is the leading scorer in the Patriot League and third leading rebounder (5.9). Also in double-digits are senior guard Mark Linebaugh (12.6) and sophomore guard Alvin Reed (12.2). Linebaugh is eighth in the Patriot League in scoring and Reed is 10th.
Junior center Andrew Zidar is the second leading rebounder in the Patriot League with 6.0 caroms per outing and is averaging 8.8 points per game.
Reed leads the team in assists with 45, followed by Linebaugh with 43 and Zidar with 32. Blue and Reed are tied in steals with 19 and Blue leads in blocked shots with seven.
Linebaugh is the top free throw shooter in the Patriot League making .915 percent of his shots, followed by Reed (.882) and Blue (.849). 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s starting five is making .898 of its shots from the line.
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OTHER COLGATE NOTES: 51³Ô¹ÏÍø is the top free throw shooting team in the Patriot League making .777 of its attempts … The Raiders are second in scoring (73.6 ppg), third in field goal percentage (.447), third in 3-point field goal percentage (.370), second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (.333), second in assists (14.36 pg), and first in turnover/assist ratio (0.97).