Nate Hickman’s 3-pointer with 1.1 seconds remaining gave the Columbia men’s basketball team an 81-78 overtime victory over Colgate Saturday afternoon. The Lions (3-2) led by as many as 24 points and never trailed, but the Raiders tied the game with five seconds left in regulation to force overtime.

“There’s little things that we got to keep working on as a team,” Hickman said. “Our team defense not helping off the shooters too much, we gave them so many open looks and they are a great shooting team. So they got hot.”

Columbia jumped ahead, 74-69, in the extra session after Luke Petrasek scored five-straight, but Colgate answered the bell again and tied the game on a deep trey by Jordan Swopshire, who finished with a game-high 26 points, with 2:03 to play.

With the Lions back up, 78-75, the Raiders’ Nathan Harries found room from the left corner to knot things up again with 13 seconds left. Mike Smith brought the ball up the floor and tossed the ball back to Hickman, who fired from about 35-feet out and nailed the try to put Columbia ahead for good. Colgate had one last chance, but did not get a half court heave off in time.

“It was a must win game for us,” Petrasek said. “We knew that coming in and we been through a lot of overtime games and the older guys who have graduated helped us through the overtime games before. So, now it’s just time for us to step up and start leading the other guys to these overtime games.”

The Lions will face off Hofstra on Tuesday night at 7pm at the Levien Gymnasium.

 

SUNY Cortland came from behind in the second half to beat the City College of New York Beavers, 78-77, on a game-winning basketball in the final seconds of the half. Andrew Kelly and Justin Cooper led the scoring with 19 points.

The Beavers started the game by drawing fouls and getting into the foul line. They were getting in transition and running the ball up and down the court on fastbreak. Beavers led throughout most of the game. Red Dragons spark little comebacks in the first half but the Beavers kept increasing the lead.

Things would change in the second half. Beavers led as many as 10 points in the second half until the Red Dragons spark a big comeback and this time they were not gonna go down without a fight. They cut down the lead to 2, 69-67. it went from a blowout to a nail biting finish. Red Dragons scored on the final basket to give them a 78-77 lead. Beavers David Solano tried to win the game with a three at the buzzer but he missed. Red Dragons stunned the Beavers at the Nat Holman Gymnasium.

Three of the Beavers players finished in double figures. Mark Richards finished with 11 points. Khalil Hamer with 22. Robbie Dionisio with 20. Beavers shot just 40% from the field in the second half.