Army Crushes Colgate for First Conference Victory

HAMILTON – After falling to Lehigh in its conference opener, the Army West Point women’s basketball team responded by dominating Colgate, 81-49, to pick up its first conference victory this season on Saturday afternoon at Cotterell Court.

The win also marked the first Patriot League victory for first-year head coach Katie Kuester.
Army (10-3, 1-1) led for 39 minutes, while Colgate (5-8, 1-1) never established a lead. The Black Knights were in complete control of nearly every statistical category and got massive contributions from players up and down the roster. Saturday was the third time this season that Army has score 80-plus points and the third time it has allowed less than 50 points.

The Black Knights started on fire from the field, knocking down four its first five attempts to take a 13-8 lead into the opening quarter’s media timeout. Army closed out the quarter on a 7-2 run take a 20-10 lead into the second period of play. In the first quarter, six Black Knights scored with Reese Ericson leading with five.

Saturday marked the third game in five days for the Black Knights, who did not look fatigued in the slightest and went on a 7-0 run to open the second quarter and build up an impressive 17-point lead with 6:42 left to play until halftime. The Raiders had no answer for the Black Knight’s paint offense and couldn’t get anything to fall on the other end.

Army’s defense was in complete control of the game and held Colgate scoreless over the final 5:49 of the second quarter, while the offense went on a 13-0 run to take a 42-15 lead into the halftime break. Forty-two points are the most scored by Army in the opening half this season, while 15 are the fewest allowed. Colgate scored just five points in the second period, which are the fewest points allowed by Army in a quarter this year.

Six players had five or more points for Army at halftime, while the team shot 48.4 percent. On the other side, Colgate made just seven of its 26 attempts for a 26.9 shooting clip.

Army carried the same intensity it had in the first half into the third quarter, which ended up being the team’s best stretch of offense all day and arguably the whole season. After knocking down its first few shots of the quarter, Colgate cut Army’s lead to 24 but the Black Knights stayed on the gas pedal.

Army went on a 13-2 run over the next 4:30 to extend its lead to 35. Colgate had no luck in the closing minutes of the period and Army took a 64-29 lead into the final 10 minutes of action.

Colgate was unable to cut into the Army lead in the fourth quarter, as the Black Knights cruised to their second 32-point win this season. Fiona Hastick scored her first points of the season in the final 10 minutes, while Taylor Wilson completed her first double-double.