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           HAMILTON, N.Y. - The halfway mark of the Patriot League season hasn’t been reached and already the Colgate men’s basketball team (9-8 overall, 1-4 PL) is facing a must-win situation when it travels to Lafayette College (9-9, 3-2) on Saturday.  Tip-off is 3:15 p.m. at the Kirby Sports Center.

            The Raiders have dropped four of their first five Patriot League games including all three home contests.  Three of the four setbacks have been by five points or less.  The only victory came on the road against Holy Cross.

            Lafayette, meanwhile, is 3-2 in league play including a victory over first place American.

            This is the 64th meeting between Colgate and Lafayette with the Raiders leading the overall series, 34-29.  Last season, Colgate swept the home-and-home series with the Leopards winning 79-66 at Cotterell Court before taking an 80-72 decision at the Kirby Sports Center in the final regular season game.

            In Colgate’s last outing, the Raiders were defeated by Bucknell, 80-75.  Senior Pat Campolieta led the way with his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 13 rebounds.  Mark Linebaugh added 14 points and Martin Marek netted 10.

            Campolieta became the first player in school history to be ranked in the Top 10 of career statistics for points scored (1,470), rebounding (618), assists (211) and steals (174).

            He leads the Raiders in scoring with 15.7 points per game and rebounding with 7.2 caroms per outing.  Campolieta ranks third in scoring and frebounding in the Patriot League.

            Linebaugh is second in scoring with 11.6 points per game, while Howard Blue is third with 11.4 points per game.  Tim Sullivan is averaging 9.7 ppg and Dave Hardy 8.9 ppg.

            Lafayette is led by senior guard Brian Burke with 13.5 points per game and sophomore guard Justin DeBerry with 11.6 points per outing.  DeBerry has the third best 3-point field goal percentage (.444) in the Patriot League.

            Mike Farrell is knocking down 9.6 ppg and Mick Kuberka is averaging 9.3 ppg for the Leopards.