HAMILTON, N.Y. –– Patriot League Tournament top seed Colgate (23-10) scored 19 of the game's final 30 points to hold off the fifth-seeded Navy (12-19) men's basketball team, 80-70, Sunday afternoon at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y., in the semifinal round of the event.
 
Colgate, winners of a school-record tying 10-straight games, will play host to either Bucknell or Lehigh Wednesday night in the championship game of the tournament.
 
The Mids, who were picked eighth in the league at the start of the year, sees their season end in the semifinal round for the second time in three seasons.  This is after not the program hadn't advanced to at least the semifinal round since 2001.
 
"We fought our brains off tonight," said Navy's Ed DeChellis, who was coaching the 700^th game of his head coaching career today.  "The effort was not lacking, that's for sure.  We really competed and played hard.  We just didn't play well.  We didn't play our best game.  When you get to this point in the year, you need to play one of your better games.  We didn't play a bad game, but we didn't play our best game."
 
After a fast start to the game for both teams, the Raiders went on a 10-0 run midway through the first half to take a 19-12 lead with 11:35 left in the first half.  The Mids were able to close to within 21-17, but Colgate responded by scoring the next six points to build a 27-17 advantage.  The margin would grow to 14 points (38-24) before Navy winnowed the difference down to 42-34 at halftime.
 
Navy shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half, but Colgate connected on 60 percent of its field goal attempts.  The Raiders also were 6-12 from three-point land in the first half and the Mids were 4-11 from beyond the arc in the opening stanza.
 
Colgate grew the lead out to 13 points early in the second half at both 47-34 and 52-39, then the margin was again double figures at 58-47 with 11:44 left on the clock.
 
George Kiernan (Sr., Hinsdale, Ill.) totaled five points on the next two Navy possessions to draw the Mids to within six points at 58-52.  Navy then had three possessions to cut into the margin again, but a turnover followed by back-to-back missed shots were the results of those three trips down the floor.  Colgate answered with a jumper on its next offensive opportunity to increase the lead out to 60-52 with 8:12 showing on the clock.
 
Navy again chipped away at the difference and when Evan Wieck (Jr., Amarillo, Texas) made two free throws, the Mids were within two points at 61-59 with 5:33 still to play.
 
Jack Ferguson would hit a three-point shot on the ensuing Colgate possession.  Navy had a missed shot and offensive rebound on its next time down the floor, but the second attempt by the Mids was blocked by Colgate's Will Rayman.  Colgate missed a shot on its following possession, with the loose carom being knocked out of bounds by the Mids.  Colgate's Rayman then hit a long jumper on the inbounds pass to make the score 66-59 with 4:21 remaining.
 
Navy kept battling and soon a Kiernan triple closed the gap down to 74-70 with 46 seconds remaining.  The Mids fouled Rayman with 38 seconds left, and he missed both foul shots with the latter errant attempt gathered in by Kiernan.
 
Kiernan tried to free himself for a three-point shot on the other end of the floor, but in doing so he was whistled for an offensive foul to give Colgate possession with 27 seconds left on the clock.  The Raiders would go 6-6 from the foul line over the closing seconds to seal the decision.
 
"They (Colgate) made some big shots, some big plays," said DeChellis.  "We tried to counter punch and make some big shots but we never got the big one we needed to get them right where they would get tight." 
 
Navy's shooting cooled off in the second half to 36 percent, while Colgate made 44 percent of its second half field goal attempts.  Both teams would make 26 field goal attempts on the afternoon.  The Raiders made 10 three-point field goals to seven for the Mids, and Colgate also was 18-24 from the foul line in contrast to the 11-14 effort from the stripe for the Mids.
 
Navy narrowly won the turnover contest as the Mids committed 13 and forced 14, but the Raiders held a 16-11 edge in points scored after those turnovers. 
 
"We made mini runs, mini runs, mini runs," said DeChellis," but so did they."
 
Kiernan scored 19 points in what turned out to be the final game of his career.  He scored 926 of his 928 career points over his last three seasons.  Also playing their final collegiate games were Hasan Abdullah (Sr., Birmingham, Ala.), team captain Ryan Pearson (Sr., Richmond, Va.) and Dominick Antonelli (Sr., Mechanicsburg, Pa.). 
 
"I'm proud of our seniors," said DeChellis.  "Unbelievable effort by our seniors.  I'm proud of our team.  The last two weeks, they came together and fought hard.  This (Colgate) is the best team in the league; I'm not sure where we are at; we are right on their heels."
 
Cam Davis (So., Battlefield, Mo.) scored 18 points to miss tying his career high by one.  He scored 11 points in the second half.
 
"Cam was outstanding," said DeChellis.  "Cam did a nice job for us.  He played and made some shots for us, which was really important.  We couldn't score there for awhile, and he came up with some big baskets."
 
Evan Wieck (Jr., Amarillo, Texas) totaled 14 points and 10 rebounds to notch his fourth double-double of the season.
 
Colgate's Rapolas Ivanauskas, the 2019 Patriot League Player of the Year and transfer from Northwestern, scored 22 points to lead all players.