The American University women's basketball team scored the final 14 points of the first half to distance itself from Colgate in a 69-49 victory Saturday afternoon in Hamilton, N.Y. In total, AU ended the half on a 25-4 spurt to take a commanding 38-21 halftime lead.

Liz Leer led American (17-7, 7-3 Patriot League) with a game-high 18 points on 9-of-14 shooting. She added five rebounds, giving her 686 for her career, which ties her for third all-time in program history. Beth Shearer also recorded 686 boards at AU from 1984-88. Stephanie Anya and Lisa Strack each added 10 for the Eagles with Anya grabbing a team-high seven rebounds and Strack dishing out a game-best six assists.

The victory improves American's Patriot League record to 7-3. Combined with Navy's loss to Lafayette on Saturday, the Eagles are now tied for first place in the conference with the Midshipmen.

Colgate (7-18, 2-8 PL) got off to a fast start offensively, taking a 17-13 lead over AU seven minutes into the game. But from that point forward, the Eagles dug in on the defensive side of the ball, allowing Colgate to score only four points in the remainder of the half.

Facing the four-point deficit at the 13:00 mark, American rolled off nine points in a row on a pair of Strack buckets, an Ashley Yencho jumper from the elbow and two Anya free throws. After Colgate scored four of the next six points to get within 24-21, the Eagles tallied the final 14 points of the half, holding the Raiders scoreless in the final 6:28 of the half. Tori Halvorsen began the 14-0 American spurt with three consecutive layups and they were followed by back-to-back layups from Leer. The Eagles closed the half on two threes in a row from Nicole Ryan and Sarah Kiely, which gave AU the 17-point halftime advantage.

"It was a high tempo first half and we like that because that is the way we like to play," Head Coach Matt Corkery said. "We did a nice job of sharing the ball and creating good looks on offense."

The Raiders began the second half with a bucket on the opening possession to trim AU's lead to 15, but that is as close as they would get in the remainder of the game. Leer came back with a baseline jumper and Strack followed with a three to extend the Eagles' margin to 20, 43-23, forcing Colgate to call a timeout at the 18:52 mark. Colgate would not threaten the rest of the way, as the Eagles held a lead between 17 and 24 points for the remainder of the contest.

For the game, AU shot 50.9 percent, marking the second straight contest it has been over 50 percent shooting. The Eagles also took care of the basketball, registering 15 assists compared to only 11 turnovers.

Colgate, meanwhile, recorded a 34.0 percent clip from the field and was plagued by only 42.9 shooting (9-21) from the foul line. Additionally, for the second consecutive game, AU held its opponent without a double-figure scorer as Sami Kozlowski led the Raiders with nine points. Krista Moser scored eight points and grabbed a game-high 10 boards for Colgate as well. The Raiders, however, did shoot 43.5 percent in the second half.

"In the second half, it was evident that we need to do a better job of boxing out and limiting second shots," added Corkery. "Colgate was more aggressive that half and we were not. We need to play with energy for 40 minutes and that is still a challenge for us."

The victory marks AU's 25th straight win when scoring at least 60 points, which dates back to last season. AU has won all 13 of its contests this campaign when hitting the 60-point mark.

The Eagles will return to action on Wednesday, February 16 with a key conference matchup against Army. Tip time from Bender Arena is set for 7 p.m.