Feb 28, 2007

AU Men's Basketball Rolls Past Colgate and into the Semifinals with 59-44 win

Feb. 28, 2007

WASHINGTON - Three players scored in double-digits and Travis Lay (Rockville, Md./Bullis School) recorded a career-high 13 rebounds to lead American University to a 59-44 win over Colgate on Wednesday night in Bender Arena in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.

After leading by four to start the second and shooting 39.1 percent from the field, AU picked it up in the second on both ends of the court and held a 48-25 field goal percent advantage over the Raiders. With 13:55 left on the clock, Lay grabbed an offensive board and kicked it out to Andre Ingram (Richmond, Va./Highland Springs) who was wide open in three-point land. With the trey, Ingram increased American's advantage to 12, the largest lead of the night. Just over two minutes later, Arvydas Eitutavicius (Klaipeda, Lithuania/Norfolk Collegiate (Va.) crashed the boards on his own jumper and put the lay-up away to give AU a 41-27 lead. Ingram finished with a game-high 16 points moving into fifth place in AU's all-time record book with 1,635 career points, with Eitutavicius chipping in 15 of his own.

Colgate cut the lead to eight with 7:16 left in the game but AU quickly pulled away. On a Paulius Joneliunas (Vilnius, Lithuania/Roanoke Catholic) rebound and lay-up, the Eagles went on a 7-0 run in just over a minute and took it from there, going on to win by 15. Joneliunas finished with 12 points on the night.

On the opposite end of the court, American's tenacious defending limited the Raider's shot selection, allowing a Colgate-high of just 12 points and holding key shooter Jon Simon to singe-digit points.

"The difference tonight was we really keyed on [Jon] Simon. He's a good player and has been shooting really well," said Head Coach Jeff Jones. "Kyle Chones hurt us so bad at the beginning of the second half in Hamilton, so we schemed to take those things away."

Led by Lay's 13 rebounds and Brayden Billbe's (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island) six, AU outrebounded the visitors 41-23. "We knew coming in because of the potential match-ups with Brayden and Paulius that [Travis] Lay was going to get a lot of minutes, especially because Kyle Chones had such a big game against us up there [Colgate] so he responded with a great effort defensively, obviously 13 boards," said Jones. "He's a real hustle guy."

With the win, AU swept the 2006-07 series over Colgate 3-0, respectively. In its sixth year in the Patriot League, American University has yet to lose in the first round of the tournament. The Eagles head north to face Holy Cross in the semifinals on Sunday at 2 p.m.