POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. ‘ Dennis Young scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Marist College to a 72-65 win over Colgate Friday night in the opening round of the Pepsi-Marist Classic.
Colgate (0-1) will meet Eastern Michigan in Saturday night’s consolation game at 5 p.m. Vermont defeated Eastern Michigan 71-64 in the first game of the doubleheader.
Senior guard Dave Hardy, who scored a career-high 25 points, and junior guard Mark Linebaugh with 14 points and eight rebounds led Colgate.
Also in double figures for Marist were Nick Eppehimer and Brandon Ellerbee with 15 points apiece. Eppehimer finished with a double-double adding 10 rebounds.
Colgate had a three-point lead, 12-9, with 10:04 remaining in the first half, before the Red Foxes came back to take a 15-14 lead on Ellerbee’s jumper. Marist went ahead by as many as eight points before settling for a 28-25 halftime lead.
In the second half, Marist extended its advantage to seven points on two occasions in the first four minutes, but Colgate hung tough battling back to take a 44-43 lead with 9:21 remaining.
The Raiders led 54-53 with 5:40 remaining before Marist scored six straight points on Eppehimer’s three-point play and Ellerbee’s 3-point shot. The Red Foxes never trailed after that run. The closest Colgate would come was 63-61 with 1:29 remaining.
Keith Williams had seven points and seven rebounds for the Raiders while Andrew Zidar added eight points and seven boards.
GAME NOTES: Colgate played without the services of Howard Blue, who suffered a sprained ankle in Thursday’s practice. He is listed as day-to-day.