Army West Point Drops Road Contest To Lafayette

Sunday, January 16

Easton, PA

2:00 PM

Army West Point

10-8,4-2Patriot

Lafayette College

4-11,1-3Patriot

Army West Point

Lafayette

Army West Point Drops Road Contest To Lafayette

January 16, 2022 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Game 18
SCORE	Lafayette Leopards 68, Army West Point Black Knights 54
RECORDS	Lafayette (4-11, 1-3 Patriot) \| Army (10-8, 4-2 Patriot)
LEADING SCORERS	Lafayette – Leo O'Boyle (16) \| Army – Jalen Rucker (15)
LOCATION	Kirby Sports Center

EASTON, Pa. – Jalen Rucker scored a team-high 15 points as the Black Knights fell to the Lafayette Leopards, 68-54, on Sunday.

GAME SUMMARY
The Black Knights entered the game in a four-way tie for first place in the Patriot League with a 4-1 record, which is their best since the 2013-14 season. Army had won four of the last five against the Leopards, including the last two trips to the Kirby Sports Center, as the teams met for the first time since the 2019-20 season.

Army and Lafayette plodded through the first half with the Black Knights holding a three-point lead at halftime. However, the Leopards shot 59 percent from the field and led as many as 21 points in the second half to pull away for the win.

Lafayette opened the game's scoring with two free throws before Army scored six straight points. A 3-pointer by TJ Small at the 12-minute mark gave the Black Knights their largest lead of the game, 13-6. However, the Leopards went on an 11-2 run over the next 2:30.

Trailing 19-17 with eight minutes left in the half, Jalen Rucker lifted Army back in the lead with five straight points as part of a 7-0 run in two minutes. Nolan Naess scored at the 2:58 mark for the final points of the half for either team as the Black Knights headed into halftime with a 26-23 lead.

There were five lead changes through the opening five minutes of the second half. The Leopards went ahead for good with a 10-0 run to take a 40-32 lead with 14:34 remaining. The run was part of a stretch where they outscored the Black Knights, 27-6, in eight minutes as they made 11 of 13 field-goal attempts. Lafayette had its largest lead at 64-43 with five minutes left before Army closed the game on an 11-4 run.

CADETS CAPSULES

Jalen Rucker led Army in scoring with 15 points for his team-leading 14^th double-digit scoring game of the season. He added three rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
Chris Mann scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds to share team-high honors.

COACH'S CORNER
"We put ourselves in a tough position on how we played in the first half. We were impatient offensively; we didn't share the ball or didn't make Lafayette work to guard us. I thought we practiced great yesterday. We have played a lot of games quickly and thought we were a little fatigued. We were immature in how we came out today and did not execute the little things. We took poor shots and our energy defensively was lackluster." – Jimmy Allen

UP NEXT

Army hosts American University on Wednesday, January 19 at 6 p.m.
Coverage will be provided by the ESPN+ and by the Army Sports Network via the Varsity Sports Network and www.GoArmyWestPoint.com.
For ticket information, call 1-877-TIX-ARMY or visit www.goarmywestpoint.com/tickets.

For complete coverage of Army West Point men's basketball, follow the Black Knights on Twitter, Instagram, and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.