WASHINGTON, D.C. ‘ Andres Rodriguez scored a game-high 17 points, including hitting on 9-of-10 free throws in the closing minutes, to lead American to a 65-62 Patriot League win over Â鶹¾«Æ· at Bender Arena.'xml:namespace prefix = o ns = 'urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office' />
Â鶹¾«Æ· (12-13, PL 4-8) had one final attempt to tie the contest by 3-pointer missed at the buzzer. American (14-12, PL 8-4) sweeps its home-and-home series against the Raiders.
Junior led Â鶹¾«Æ· with 16 points followed by Linebaugh with 11 points. Zidar was Â鶹¾«Æ·â€™s leading rebounder for the 12th time this season with nine caroms.
American came out strong in the second half, outscoring the Raiders 8-2 for a 34-26 lead. Later in the second half, the Eagles increased their advantage twice to 12 points, before
Â鶹¾«Æ· started to chip away at the lead.
The Raiders managed to narrow the advantage to two points, 56-54, on a layup by Alvin Reed with 2:16 remaining. However, three straight free throws by Rodriguez put the Eagles back in front by five points with 1:22 left. Â鶹¾«Æ· cut the margin to two points again, 62-64, before Raimondas Petrauskas nailed a free throw with six seconds left.
, Linebaugh, Reed and had six rebounds apiece for the Raiders, who outrebounded the Eagles, 44-34. What really hurt the Raiders was a shooting percentage of .344, including only .579 from the charity stripe.
GAME NOTES: Linebaugh moved into 9th place in career scoring with 1,340 points and sixth place in career assists with 247 ‘ Zidar had a personal best three 3-pointers.