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EASTON, PA – Six Lafayette players were in double figures as the hot-shooting Leopards held off ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ in the Patriot League opener, 97-86, at the Kirby Sports Center Saturday afternoon.
Lafayette is 10-4 overall while ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ falls to 7-6.
Justin DeBerry led Lafayette with 20 points as the Leopards made 59 percent of their field goal attempts. Behind DeBerry in the scoring column was Winston Davis with 17 points, Mike Farrell and Pat Betley with 16 apiece, Sean Knitter with 12 and Jamaal Douglas with 10.
Senior forward Howard Blue, who had his second consecutive double-double, with a career-high 28 points and 11 rebounds, led ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ. Mark Linebaugh and Alvin Reed added 19 points apiece and Andrew Zidar tallied 10.
Lafayette used a strong bench to win its opening Patriot League with the reserve players accounting for 24 points, while ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ received only 10 points off the bench. ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ shoot 43 percent from the field.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ opened the contest with a strong performance moving out to a 16-10 lead behind Blue and Linebaugh. The Leopards, however, scored 14 straight points to take control of the contest. They led 43-36 at halftime.
In the second half, ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ fell behind by 17 points on four occasions, before the Raiders rallied to trail by six points, 90-84, with one minute left. ¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ used the foul line to get back into the control making 25-of-27 attempts.
¸Ô±¾ÊÓƵ next game is Wednesday, when they play host to Holy Cross College.