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Monday, February 12, 2007
Colgate fouls away a victory
The Raiders seemed to have a win over American in the bag after taking the lead with 0.2 seconds to play.

Since the rule book states a player cannot catch and shoot the ball with less than 0.3 on the clock, the only way the Raiders, up 51-49 after Dan Gentile tipped in a Jon Simon miss, could not win in that situation seemed to be the improbable possibility of a length of the court pass being tipped in at the other end.

Of course that assumed the Raiders were smart enough to avoid fouling somebody on the inbounds play, an assumption that proved erroneous when Arvydas Eitutavicius managed to draw a foul before the ball was even inbounded.

Eitutavicius made both free throws to send it to overtime, where AU made 11 more foul shots (on 12 tries) to pull out an improbable 64-58 road win.

If Colgate finds itself on a long bus ride -- and to get anywhere from Hamilton it is a long ride -- come Feb. 28, they can look back on this one as why. Not just because of what happened to at the end of regulation, either. The Raiders had an 11-point lead at one point in the second half and could not hold it.

A win would have given the Raiders a two-game lead in the race for the fourth, and final, home spot in the first round of the playoffs. Instead, Colgate (9-15 overall, 4-7 Patriot) is now tied with American (12-13, 4-7), with the Eagles holding the tiebreaker edge by virtue of a head-to-head sweep.

American also has an easier schedule down the stretch. The Eagles' three remaining league opponents are have sub .500 league records. American is home against Army and Lafayette and plays one road game -- at Navy. Colgate has two home games left -- Lehigh and Navy -- and has to travel to Worcester to face Holy Cross.

Aside from the late-game blunder, it was a typical cold shooting Colgate performance (19 of 57, 33.3 percent) in front of a typical Hamilton crowd (523). Not even the usual lure of television cameras could entice the Colgate student body to make the trek down the hill through the snow to watch.

Eitutavicius finished with 13 points, all in the second half, to share team honors with point guard Derrick Mercer. Linas Lekavicius added 12 points and Andre Ingram had 11 for the Eagles, who went 20 of 52 from the field (38.5 percent).

AU made just two three-pointers (8 tries), but was 22 of 24 from the foul line. Colgate was 7 for 21 from the arc, 13 of 16 at the line.

Simon led Colgate with 19 points. It took him 20 shots (6 makes) to get those 19, though. Kyle Chones added 16 and his brother Kendall had 12.

The win was No. 100 for Jeff Jones at American.
Box score | AP

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Published at 12:03 AM by Hoop Time.
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