WASHINGTON, D.C. ‘ Andres Rodriguez scored a game-high 17 points, including hitting on 9-of-10 free throws in the closing minutes, to lead American to a 65-62 Patriot League win over Colgate at Bender Arena.
Colgate (12-13, PL 4-8) had one final attempt to tie the contest by Mark Linebaugh’s 3-pointer missed at the buzzer. American (14-12, PL 8-4) sweeps its home-and-home series against the Raiders.
Junior Andrew Zidar led Colgate with 16 points followed by Linebaugh with 11 points. Zidar was Colgate’s leading rebounder for the 12th time this season with nine caroms.
American came out strong in the second half, outscoring the Raiders 8-2 for a 34-26 lead. Later in the second half, the Eagles increased their advantage twice to 12 points, before
Colgate started to chip away at the lead.
The Raiders managed to narrow the advantage to two points, 56-54, on a layup by Alvin Reed with 2:16 remaining. However, three straight free throws by Rodriguez put the Eagles back in front by five points with 1:22 left. Colgate cut the margin to two points again, 62-64, before Raimondas Petrauskas nailed a free throw with six seconds left.
Kendall Chones, Linebaugh, Reed and Howard Blue had six rebounds apiece for the Raiders, who outrebounded the Eagles, 44-34. What really hurt the Raiders was a shooting percentage of .344, including only .579 from the charity stripe.
GAME NOTES: Linebaugh moved into 9th place in career scoring with 1,340 points and sixth place in career assists with 247 ‘ Zidar had a personal best three 3-pointers.