Without relinquishing its halftime lead, the AU men's basketball team capitalized off 19 points from the foul line for a 72-64 win over Colgate Sunday.
Junior guard Andre Ingram led AU (8-15, 4-6 Patriot League) with 19 points and freshman Derrick Mercer added 14 points and six assists for the Eagles, who snapped their two-game losing streak.
The Raiders (8-16, 2-8) had four players with double-digit points, but couldn't contain the Eagles' offense that shot 44 percent from the field and went 19 of 23 from the foul line for the game .
Colgate pulled within one, 49-48, on a Kyle Roemer 3-pointer nine minutes into the second half.
The Eagles answered the 3-pointer with an 8-2 run spanning over the next three minutes.
Colgate clawed back within five with 6:28 remaining but failed to get stops. The Eagles capped the game with six points from the free-throw line.
"We made some plays down the stretch, and for a recent change we made some freethrows," AU coach Jeff Jones said.
Mercer drew the game's toughest assignment of Colgate senior guard Alvin Reed, who has a history of solid performances against AU.
But if the defensive assignment scared Mercer, he didn't show it. He contained Reed to just 14 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
"As a freshman I've been hearing about Reed and how good he is," Mercer said. "It was a big job for me and I knew I had to step it up."
Sophomore Travis Lay played an unusually high 18 minutes for the Eagles, getting time over junior Brayden Billbe and freshman Brian Gilmore.
"He responded and played well," Jones said. "He played well against Colgate up there, so we kind of just went with a good thing."
Fluid ball movement from Mercer and high-percentage shots propelled AU to a 10-2 lead just four minutes into the game. The Eagles led by as many as nine, but Colgate took a 27-26 lead after Todd Checovich made a move in the post with 4:16 remaining in the half.
From that point forward, the Eagles outscored Colgate 11-5 for a 37-32 halftime lead.
AU forced seven first-half turnovers and grabbed five steals.
Nichols hit a milestone, registering his 30th block, the 10-th-most by an AU player in a single season.
"Our goal was just to play good defense and our offense would come," Mercer said.
Jones said the Eagles are now focusing their efforts toward getting better for the conference tournament, which begins March 3.
"They understand that when you got a post season tournament, that should motivation enough to fight for the best seeding possible," Jones said. "We'll see what happens."
AU will travel to Army Wednesday night.
