The No. 2 seeded men’s basketball team started March off strong with a 69-53 victory over the No. 7 seeded Colgate Raiders in the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.
Vlad Moldoveanu scored 31 points to lead the Eagles.
“The guys did a great job of finding me open, set good screens,” Moldoveanu said. “It wasn’t just me you know, coach did a great job calling plays for me, it was a team effort.”
The game started out with each team exchanging shots and tying the lead three times, but eventually AU took over the lead with 14 minutes remaining in the first half.
Colgate’s Yaw Gyawu helped the opponents keep up with AU, as he shot three for eight from the floor and scored 8 first-half points. The Raiders kept their deficit under double figures and were looking to extend a 6–1 run into halftime, but with four seconds left, Nick Hendra, who tied his career-high nine assists, found a cutting Moldoveanu who converted the lay-up to put the Eagles on top 29-23 heading into the locker room.
“We were moving the ball well and finally settling down,” Stephen Lumpkins said. “In the first half we were just standing a lot, [but then] we started cutting through and those cuts started opening everything up.”
In the second half, Lumpkins and Moldoveanu helped deliver the one-two punch to knockout the Raiders. Lumpkins turned his 7 points and seven rebound first half performance into his eighth double-double of the season. He ended the game with 19 points, tying his career-high.
Three Raider players did score in double figures and Gyawu and Mitch Rolls’ duel threat combined for 17 of Colgate’s 30 second half points, but with less than eight minutes to go and Colgate within five, Moldoveanu go hot from everywhere on the court.
In a four minute spurt, the senior scored 10 of the teams’ 14 points capping off a 14–4 American run. Vlad also scored 18 of his 31 total points in the second half including a 3-pointer to beat an expiring shot-clock.
“[Lumpkins] did a great job screening for me to get my shot off,” Moldoveanu said. “It doesn’t matter which way I come off, I like to shoot the ball right away. There were great passes; great screens and I just delivered the shot.”
The Eagles outscored the Raiders 40-30 in the second half to seal the 69-53 victory.
American University will face the Lafayette College Leopards Sunday in the semifinals at Bender Arena.
The last time these two teams met, the Eagles survived a 95-92, double overtime thriller on the road, but this time AU is on a six-game win streak.
“I would like to think we’ve got some momentum,” Head Coach Jeff Jones said. “We’ve got to play harder, smarter, tougher [because] both teams are going to be very familiar with one another.
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