Led by a season-high 27 points by Stephen Lumpkins, the American University men's basketball team defeated Colgate 69-60 in the first annual Bender White Out.

Lumpkins led all scorers and notched six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Vlad Moldoveanu and Troy Brewer also finished in double-figures for the Eagles, tallying 17 and 10, respectively. Sterling Melville led the Raiders with 10 points as American shot 68.8 percent from the field in the second half en route to the victory.

"It was a good win," Head Coach Jeff Jones stated following the game. "I guess you could call it workman-like, I don't know that we did anything outstanding, but we just kept after it. I thought Stephen Lumpkins, obviously if you look at the point totals, did a good job. We're really striving to take that next step, and if we're going to do that each of the guys individually need to take that next step."

American (17-8, 7-3 PL) opened the game on a 9-2 run that was capped by a Lumpkins dunk in transition with 17:40 remaining. The Raiders responded with back-to-back three pointers and grabbed their first lead of the game, 13-12, on a Yaw Gyawu layup at the 14:08 mark.

After a pair of ties and several led changes, a drive and layup by Mitch Rolls put Colgate (6-19, 3-7 PL) up 26-22 with 6:43 left. Two minutes later, Rolls looked to have another easy layup before Brewer pinned the ball against the backboard. Then on American's ensuing possession, Brewer slammed a Nick Hendra miss down with one hand and sent Bender Arena into a frenzy. However, the Raiders answered with a three by Joe Hoban and entered halftime up 29-28.

Lumpkins topped the halftime box score with 10 points while Hoban scored nine for Colgate. The Raiders converted five of their six three-point attempts in the half and shot 50 percent from the field.

The Eagles seized the lead with a 10-4 run to start the second half and never looked back. A three by Mike Venezia brought Colgate to within two, but back-to-back American layups put the home squad up 42-36 with 14:23 remaining. Consecutive threes by Moldoveanu and Charles Hinkle then pushed the lead to 10 with 11 minutes left.

The Raiders cut the lead back to single digits before Lumpkins converted a three-point play at the 7:47 mark to give American its largest lead of the game. From that point on only five field goals were scored in the rest of regulation. The Eagles hit nine of their 11 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

American held the Raiders to 35.7 percent shooting in the second half as each of Colgate's top three leading scorers finished below their season averages. The Eagles also controlled the paint on both ends, holding advantages in both points in the paint (28-16) and rebounds (25-23). Hendra dished out four assists, marking the fourth consecutive game in which he's finished with four or more.

The Eagles improved to 7-3 in the Patriot League and hold sole possession of second place entering the final third of conference play. They will look to pick up another important win when they face Army next Wednesday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m. in West Point, N.Y.

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