sweep

having slaughtered cornell at levien on the 2oth of january, the lions journeyed to ithaca on the 27th and forgot what they had just done.  matt morgan and stone gettings controlled the game, mostly throughout, and the big red hung on for an 82 – 81 victory.  thus it was a chastened columbia crew that returned home to take on tommy amaker’s cantabs friday last.  harvard was 5 – 0 coming into the contest and shared first place in the ivies with pennsylvania.  many of those 2,000 in attendance must have been reconsidering their choice of entertainment when the crimson savaged the light blue’s sluggish 2 – 3 zone.  the crimson passed around the perimeter for open treys or drove the middle of the zone before kicking to the corners for more open look treys.   chief among the offenders was seth towns, who is a 6′ 7″ match up nightmare in any event and who scored outside and in.  it was 25 – 10 before the crowd’s jackets were all off and coach engle decided enough was enough.  following a kyle castlin three pointer at the ten minute mark, the lions starting picking up full court and moving efficiently in their half court man to man defense.  with mike smith coming off the bench without a sulk for the first time in his 44 game career and probing the harvard interior, the lions’ advantage at guard began to assert itself.  quinton adlesh, when he wasn’t laying out to grab any loose ball in the house, began raining treys on cantab heads.  messr castlin also scored from the outside when not taking a defender to the rim for a deuce.  patrick tape, increasingly active in this his second season, was joined by lukas meisner and first year jaron faulds in shutting down the baseline and paint to the crimson and battling them to a draw on the boards.  by intermission, the resurgent light blue was within six at 41 – 35.

allgame was sanguine about the ultimate outcome.  the lions simply looked better over the last ten minutes of the first stanza.  but the nervous alum surrounding us in section c were fully aware that columbia had yet to win a game this season when trailing at the half.  the fatally flat second half had frequently undone this young outfit.  not to worry.  the light blue came out flying and took the lead four and half minutes into the period on an adlesh triple.  from there on they controlled play.  though harvard did not stop fighting, no one save messr town (31 points) was dangerous.  five columbians scored in double figures – adlesh (20), smith (16), castlin (16), tape (10) and lukas meisner (16).  meisner also grabbed 11 rebounds in recording his third double double of the campaign. decisively, the lions were assassins at the foul line, draining 18 – 20 free throws, and never looked back on their way to an 83 – 76 win that put the first blemish on the harvards’  ivy league record.

dave mclaughlin’s second year helming the big green has been difficult.  back in the autumn, his best returning player, junior forward evan boudreaux, announced that he would graduate in three years and preserve his last two seasons of basketball eligibility elsewhere as a graduate transfer student.  the ivy campaign this season has been even more aggravating.  at 0 – 5 coming into last saturday’s game, dartmouth had lost by five points against harvard, by two on the road at brown and by a single point at ithaca.  they were flat at tip off against the lions who continued to play the up tempo, flowing offense they had found against harvard.  quinton adlesh remained hot  from outside and the big men worked efficiently down low, winning the battle of the boards 36 – 31.  though down by 13 at the half, the big green remained dogged throughout the second period.  adrease jackson, a first year forward out of california, kept popping out behind double screens to score on the outside and battled down low on his way to a 24 point, 14 rebound game.  with jackson leading the way, the hanovers kept slicing away at the columbia lead until with four minutes remaining, ian sistare drained a trey for his only points on the night and a 67 – 66 lead for the visitors.  at this critical juncture, kyle castlin took over for the light blue scoring eight of their last eleven points down the stretch.  his last two free throws put the lions up 77 – 74 with but four seconds remaining.  mclaughlin’s kids weren’t quite through.  they got the ball over half court with little more than two seconds remaining.  columbia took a time out so that coach engle could impress on all and sundry to foul immediately anyone who got the inbound pass.  coach mclaughlin, meanwhile diagrammed yet another double screen play to get the ball in jackson’s very hot paws.  jackson did indeed receive the inbounds and columbia did indeed immediately foul him.  to the immense delight of the columbia faithful, jackson’s first free throw attempt bricked.  the first year then intentionally missed his second attempt about as brilliantly as possible since it caromed into the waiting hands of guard brendan barry.  the rumson, new jersey first year had time to get a shot off but messr castlin was johnny on the spot with a smothering block of the effort.

the lions now embark on their southern new england trip.  friday night they visit the new haven bulldogs.  yale has dropped the lions four straight times, and even though this does not appear to be one of coach james jones’s better squads, the elis are always physically tough.  the lion big men will have to be actively alert and deny their hosts second chances.  the battle of the boards will be key.  swingman miye oni, now a junior, ripped the lions at levien last year and we devoutly wish that messr castlin will be able to slow him down this go round.  saturday, the lions move on to providence where mike martin’s surprising bruins await.  brown had been picked to finish near the bottom of the league, but behind brandon anderson (18 ppg) and first year desmond cambridge (17 nightly), they lead the league in scoring at 79 points per game.  at jadwin last saturday they trailed princeton by four with under a minute to go and managed to force overtime where cambridge’s trey with three seconds remaining gave them a 102 – 100 win.  brown now sits at 3 -3 tied for fourth in league with columbia and princeton.  this will be a steep hill for the lions.  the lions like to push the ball and seem most offensively comfortable in transition.  brown loves the same pace.  we hope coach engle can keep the score under 70 – that should translate to a lion road win.

as the ivy league heads into its fourth full week, the season begins rapidly winding down.  pennsylvania has been best through the first three weekends, going 5 – 0 at the palestra and ripping princeton at jadwin.   they continue play on the road this week with games at harvard and dartmouth.  i expect they will lose at least one of those tangles.  a bloodied tiger crew plays the same pair over the weekend and coach mitch henderson will have to find a way to bring his boys back from two straight league losses.  fun fact – when did princeton last lose two straight in the ivies?  2015, of course, when they fell to harvard on february 21 and then yale on the 27th.  the fiercer than usual competitiveness of this year’s ivy campaign makes road wins crucial.  columbia has got to grab one this weekend.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

before i go.  we sadly announce the loss of a member of the allgame community.  jonathan schwarz passed away on friday february 2.  he was an enthusiastic reader and generous critic of this space.  more importantly, he was a spectacularly kind friend who made it possible for me to see many of my sons’ high school basketball games in philadelphia.  those memories comprise some of my greatest moments in sport.  ever in your debt, jon.