The Leopards scored the first 13 points of the game, as the Raiders went scoreless for the first 4:28. Finally Jon Simon sank a three to get the Raiders on the board. The Leopards cooled off, shooting 1-of-5 after the quick start. But the Raiders weren’t able to capitalize. Colgate shooters were stymied by the aggressive play of Bilal Abdullah and Ted Detmer in Lafayette’s zone defense. The quick start allowed Lafayette to dictate the tempo the rest of the half. In addition to the stone cold shooting from the floor, Colgate’s Daniel Waddy and Kyle Chones could only convert 1-of-3 from the foul line, and Todd Checovich went 0-for-2 in his trips from the charity stripe. The lull in Leopard scoring ended when Abdullah hit a key three with Colgate only down by 9 with 2:31 left in the half. By the end of the half, Lafayette had shot 71.4 percent from the floor and went into the break up 38-23.

Simon came out shooting better in the second half, scoring 5 straight Colgate points. Colgate continued to struggle from three, shooting 2-for-14 at one point in the contest. Simon was solitarily responsible for keeping the Raiders in the game. Lafayette was led by 16 from Abdullah and 12 points from Everest Schmidt. Both teams settled down in the second half, only committing 7 turnovers combined. Lafayette continued to shoot over 60 percent for the game. This enabled them to maintain a double-digit lead most of the second half. The fouls began to mount on the Raiders, with big men Kyle Chones receiving 4 and Marc Daniels with 3 fouls at 8:00 minutes remaining. But Colgate did not go quietly, able to weather the poor shooting and staying within at least 13 points or fewer. All of the second chances for Colgate allowed the Raiders to cut the lead to single digits with 6:19 left in the game. An Alex Woodhouse lay-up with 5:28 remaining cut the Lafayette lead down to 59-52. The Raider rally came down to a crucial possession with 3:09 left in the game. Down by 6, Simon was at the foul line shooting two. Simon converts both shots to bring Colgate back to within 4. The next Lafayette possession, Abdullah lost control of the ball to give Colgate a chance to cut the lead down to one possession with 2 minutes to play. Colgate, with the pressure on, was unable to get a shot off on their possession. Lafayette responds by sinking a three from Andrew Brown. Colgate refused to quit. Willy Morse, coming off the bench, hit a jumper to cut the lead to 65-60. Brown threw the ball away on the next Leopard possession. A Colgate three and a quick foul made it a one-possession game, but Colgate was forced to foul. Abdullah hit both shots to ice the win.