Hamilton, N.Y. – After winning three straight Patriot League championships, Colgate is again a favorite to win a fourth and its attendant trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Raiders have Matt Langel, who in his 13th season has won five Patriot League coach of the year awards, including the last two. They have sophomore Braeden Smith, a 6-foot jet of a guard who was named the conference’s Player of the Year this season.
Colgate was 23-9 overall and 16-2 in the Patriot League before hosting Bucknell in the conference semifinal Sunday afternoon. The Raiders had lost two league games by a total of seven points. They were playing at home on a packed and spirited Cotterell Court, where fans could get free ice cream decorated with their favorite toppings before the ball even tipped.
Despite all that, Colgate needed the heroics of freshman guard Jalen Cox, a huge offensive rebound by Jeff Woodward and the canniness and clutch free throw shooting of Smith down the stretch to defeat Bucknell 68-65 here and advance to its seventh consecutive title game.
It was not easy.
Colgate trailed by as many as 15 in the first half and did not lead until Cox stole the ball, sprinted to the basket and converted the layup to give the Raiders their first lead, 62-60, with 2:49 left in the game.
“Our guys responded,” Langel said, “but unfortunately we had a big hole to climb out of.”
Colgate, in many ways, is built around veteran guys like Keegan Records, Woodward and Ryan Moffatt, all three veterans of the Raiders’ Patriot League dominance.
But on Sunday, it was the young guys that carried Colgate into the title game.
Cox, the 6-foot-3, 165-pound freshman from Los Angeles, scored 15 points – 14 of them in the second half, when Colgate made its run.
Langel said he recruited Cox because of his speed, his size, his defensive capabilities and his ability to make plays in the open floor. He started for the first time on January 12, when Colgate played at American.
Against Bucknell, Cox shot…
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