The Raiders jumped out to an 18-8 lead on the road, but they couldn’t build on a promising start because of frigid 3-point shooting.
They missed their first 10 attempts before Alex Huibregtse’s trey just before the halftime buzzer. The Colonials still had a sizeable lead at 41-31.
The league champs, who advanced to the league semifinals for the first time (they joined the HL in 2020), had a 36-25 rebounding edge. The Raiders, who will miss the semis in Indy for the third straight year, finished 15-18.
“I liked our start. But what triggered their run was the offensive rebounding. It’s hard to win (with that),” coach Clint Sargent said on his post-game radio show.
“The physicality stats — we got out-rebounded by 11 and gave up 13 offensive rebounds. And I know we were fouling late, but they shot 28 free throws and we shot three. It’s hard to win consistently with those numbers showing up.”
The Colonials turned their 10-point halftime edge into a 53-36 lead with 15:43 to go.
The Raiders cut it to 56-47 on Noel’s layup with 11:47 remaining. But D.J. Smith hit a 3 to push the margin to 12 again.
The visitors pulled to within 64-57 with 7:46 to go on Michael Imariagbe’s dunk. But the Colonials (24-8) recovered from that spurt with an 11-0 run.
“The momentum they got from us not being physical — on the road, you’ve got to make those plays. But you have to give them a ton of credit,” Sargent said.
The eighth-seeded Raiders were 10th nationally in 3-point shooting at 38.9% but shot 5 of 22.
Imariagbe had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting. Noel had 15 points but just two rebounds, and Huibregtse had 13.
Keaton Norris didn’t score but had seven rebounds and three assists.
In the other quarterfinal games, sixth-seeded Oakland upset No. 3 Milwaukee, 72-67; No. 2 Cleveland State knocked off No. 7 Northern Kentucky, 68-63, and fourth-seeded Youngstown State beat No. 5 Purdue Fort Wayne, 72-67.
WOMEN’S TEAM FALLS: The Raiders gave second-seeded Purdue Fort Wayne a battle in the quarterfinals on the road but lost, 64-50.
The gap was just four at halftime and eight with 2:17 to go.
Amaya Staton, playing in her final game, had 11 points and 15 rebounds for her 10th straight double-double. Macie Taylor had 10 points.
In other quarterfinal games, top-seeded Green Bay beat No. 10 Oakland, 84-55; second-seeded Cleveland State beat No. 6 Detroit Mercy, 92-61; and No. 4 Robert Morris handled No. 5 Northern Kentucky, 70-57.
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