COLGATE, N.Y. – The Columbia men's basketball team ran into a red-hot shooting Colgate squad, falling to the Raiders 89-71 on Saturday afternoon. Mike Smith extended his string of 20-point games to eight after notching 23 on 8-of-9 shooting from the charity stripe. The senior also dished out five assists and grabbed four rebounds in 37 minutes of action.
 
Ike Nweke dropped a career-high 18 points, going 8-of-12 from the floor, and tied a personal-best with nine rebounds. Jake Killingsworth also added nine rebounds and Jack Forrest chipped in 12 points off the bench.
 
After the Raiders knocked down their first five shots of the afternoon, Columbia kept the pace and tied the score 14-14 on a backdoor feed from Smith to Forrest with 14:51 to go in the first half. However, Colgate ripped off a 12-0 run to take control. The Raiders knocked down 9-of-18 from beyond the arc and shot 63.3 percent in the first period to take a 48-32 advantage into the half.
 
In the second, the Lions closed within 53-43 with 14:45 to play on a Randy Brumant free throw. Colgate responded with an 11-2 spurt to regain control before one last Columbia rally. Trailing 69-52, the Lions strung together a 9-1 run to close within single-digits at the 8:20 mark.
 
The Raiders came out of the under-eight media timeout with a 3-pointer from Tucker Richardson to go back up by 12, and later, posted nine unanswered to put the game away.
 
Colgate finished the day shooting 53.1 percent from the floor and 14-of-32 (43.8 percent) from 3-point range.
 
Jordan Burns paced five Raiders in double-figures with 21 points, going 4-of-9 from downtown, and added 10 assists and six rebounds. Will Rayman registered 13 points and 10 rebounds.
 
Columbia returns home to take on Marist on Saturday, December 28, for a 2 p.m. contest. Tickets are available by visiting gocolumbialions.com/tickets or calling 888-LIONS-11. Fans who cannot make the contest, can watch the action live on ESPN+.

For the latest on the Columbia men's basketball, follow @CULionsMBB on Twitter and Instagram, and the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.