HAMILTON, N.Y. -- The top-two seeds in the upcoming Patriot League Tournament battled to the closing seconds of a 74-69 win by Colgate (20-11, 16-2) over the Navy (19-10, 12-6) men's basketball team, Saturday afternoon at Cotterell Court in Hamilton, N.Y., in the regular season finale.

The seeds for the two teams were decided prior to the game.  The Raiders, as the top-seeded team, will play host to the winner of the No. 9 Bucknell at No. 8 Lafayette first round game and the second-seeded Mids will face the winner of the No. 10 American at No. 7 Holy Cross game in Alumni Hall.  The first round will be held Tuesday and the quarterfinals will be contested Thursday.

"I'm really proud of our guys," said Navy head coach Ed DeChellis. "We played hard; we did a really good job competing.  We just made some really silly mistakes at critical times in the game.  We had a couple of defensive blunders where we left shooters in the corners and they made big shots.

Today, the Mids dug a hole for themselves early as the Raiders took leads of 10-3 and 15-5.  Navy was able to close to within two points at 20-18 and then take a 26-25 lead when Richard Njoku (Sr., Washington, D.C.) scored on a dunk with six minutes left in the half.

The score would be tied at 28-28 and 31-31 before Colgate took a quick 36-31 lead.  The Mids closed the half by scoring the last five points to go into the locker room tied at 36-36. 

The Mids made more field goals than the Raiders in the first half, 14-10, but Colgate held a 6-5 lead in three-point field goals made and was 10-13 from the foul line in contrast to the 3-9 effort by Navy.

The lead went back-and-forth several times in the early part of the second half.  Navy was able to take a 45-41 lead when Christian Silva (Sr., Miami, Fla.) converted a four-point play.  Colgate responded by taking a 52-49 lead, then the Mids jumped in front, 55-52 with just under 10 minutes still to play.  The Raiders promptly went on a 14-0 run to build a 66-55 lead with 6:47 showing on the clock.

It was still an eight-point Colgate lead at 67-59 with five minutes left.  Navy drew to within four points at 67-63 with four minutes remaining, then cut the deficit to three points at 70-67 with 1:12 left.  A Colgate missed shot was grabbed by Tyler Nelson (Jr., Monre, N.C.), then Carter was fouled while attempting a shot that barely rimmed out with 25.9 seconds left.  He would make both foul shots, though, to make the score 70-69.

The Raiders inbounded the ball and, after the Mids tried to steal it, saw Nelly Cummings fouled with 20.1 seconds left.  He made the first foul shot, then DeChellis called his last timeout.  Play resumed with Cummings making his second attempt from the line to stretch the lead to 72-69.

Navy worked the ball around its offensive end, then Sean Yoder (Jr., Dublin, Pa.) curled off of a screen at the free throw line extended.  His three-point attempt to tie the game was as straight as an arrow, but was just a little long as it bounced off the back of the rim and kicked out.  Colgate's Tucker Richardson grabbed the loose ball and was immediately fouled with 2.2 seconds left.  He marched to the other of the court and made both foul shots.

Navy ended the game with more field goals made than Colgate, 26-20, and with a higher field goal percentage, 44.8%-38.5%.  The Raiders were 12-29 (41.4%) from three-point range and the Mids were 8-18 (44.4%).  Colgate also was more successful at the foul line as it was 23-31 (71%) and Navy was 9-20 (45%).

"Too many fouls," said DeChellis.  "They went to the free throw line way too many times.  They shot 31 to our 20, and we didn't shoot the ball well from the line.

"All of what I mentioned is correctable.  That's a positive.  We came up here and played them toe-to-toe and we made a couple of mistakes and we will be better for it and fix it.  We will be ready to go (in the league tournament) and our goal is to get back up here in 10 days."

Turnovers also cost the Mids at key times as their 13 turnovers led to 20 Colgate points and Navy scored eight points after the nine turnovers committed by the Raiders.

Four Mids scored in double figures.  Leading the way was Carter with 17.  Njoku scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds, Yoder had 11 points and four assists and Austin Inge (So., Greensboro, N.C.) totaled 10 points.

Final Patriot League Regular Season Standings (by tournament seed)
1. 16-2 Colgate
2. 12-6 Navy
3. 11-7 Boston U.
4. 10-8 Lehigh
5. 9-9 Army
6. 8-10 Loyola
7. 7-9 Holy Cross
8. 7-9 Lafayette
9. 5-13 Bucknell
10. 5-13 American