when brown’s tamenchang choh jumped over kyle castlin and grabbed the rebound of brandon anderson’s intentionally missed free throw with nine seconds remaining in overtime last saturday in providence, lion fans would have been forgiven their overwhelming sense of deja vu. only a week before, a missed free throw by dartmouth’s adrease jackson had managed to bound out to his teammate brandon barry on the three point line with time for a final shot. barry’s attempt was smothered by messr castlin. choh, however, shoveled the ball out to an unguarded obi okolie on the perimeter. the brown junior drained it for an 89 – 88 lead. mike smith rushed the length of the court but his last gasp lay up against two bruin defenders went awry and okolie, rewarded with two free throws off the ensuing free for all appropriately drove the final two nails in columbia’s coffin. 91 – 88, brown.
allgamers might be moved to recall the november 2013 battle at levien against manhattan. in that unhappy contest, the lions led by three points with time running out when vinny alvarado went to the foul line and missed the back end of a one and one. the jaspers emmy andujar grabbed the board but missed the put back. incredibly, manhattan’s george beamon grabbed that rebound and scored being fouled in the process. he drained the free throw, putting the visitors up 71 -70. a desperation heave to luke petrasek racing to the rim was a bit short and the uptowners headed home with the victory. just saying, sports fans, there’s something in this curse of the bambino kind of stuff for teams.
especially frustrating conclusion to the brown dust up, though. the lions opened up an eleven point first half lead against the bruins, gave it up and then some. they rallied from ten points down in the second half to tie it up with five seconds remaining on a mike smith trey. went back and forth in ot only to give up a late three point lead as described above. three lions scored twenty or better – smith with 22 and stefanini and meisner with 20 apiece. meisner added 12 rebounds to post his fourth consecutive double double and sixth in league play this season. quinton adlesh tossed in 15 so the lions squandered some fine individual efforts. brown had four players in double figures as well – brandon anderson tallied 17, messr okolie got 11 and messr choh 12 while grabbing 7 boards. first among the bruins, though, was first year desmond cambridge who tossed in 23 points and gathered 6 rebounds before injuring an ankle late in the second stanza. cambridge is dynamic in transition and a devastating finisher at the rim. he usually shoots decently from beyond the arc despite his 0 – 7 performance on saturday. brown hoop critics generally consider him the best freshman in team history. he makes brown a tough out at least and a conference tournament threat for the rest of this year and over the next few seasons.
the brown fail was all the more bile inducing because it followed a similar narrowly defeat in new haven. james jones’ elis shot lights out from beyond the arc (50% on the night), contrary to their ordinary custom and outdid the lions (45%) at their own game. miye oni, alex copeland and trey phills led their teammates to a first half lead that the lions managed to overcome and go into the locker up, 47 -45. out of the break, though, the light blue went into one of their characteristic second half sleepwalks. the elis, patiently working their offense used the clock and then made the efficient pass to the open shooter who usually answered the call and drained the shot. the lions rallied again and drew within two points twice with less than twenty seconds remaining but could not close it out, falling 88 – 84. four columbians tallied double figures – stefanini, meisner, smith and adlesh. despite their efforts and the elis excellent offensive work, the lions were finally undone at the foul line where the new havens went 12 -15 while columbia shot 5 – 12. there’s the margin of defeat. a similarly told tale was narrated in providence where the bruins hit 18 – 26 while columbia made only 10 -15. of course, the free throw attempts differential is upsetting (in what, to be honest, was a very badly officiated game), but you have to expect the home team to enjoy the majority of calls. the lions make four more foul shots (which would have put them at 75% on the evening) in the course of the game and brown’s last three free throws probably don’t happen.
all that being said, this weekend offers two large challenges and two great opportunities to get back into the upper end of the fray in this unusual ivy campaign. penn arrives friday night looking to bounce back from their first league loss (at cambridge) and sweep the season from the lions. when columbia fell to the quakers back on january 13, the were mostly the victim of a. j. brodeur’s unconscious accuracy from the perimeter. the forward’s 30 points were enough to offset columbia’s decent interior defense and mike smith’s 27 points. if the light blue are a bit quicker getting to the shooters on the outside tonight, they have a good chance to drop the philadelphians thanks to greater depth at guard. not only brodeur, but ryan betley has to be closely surveilled. guard darnell foreman is another scoring threat but betley and brodeur will be the first defensive priorities. the quakers depend on defense and rebounding to win. we devoutly wish that patrick tape will back on the floor friday as he will be crucial in the battle of the boards. helpfully, the philadelphians are even less effective from the free throw line than columbia. if the lions make foul shots as they did against harvard, the light blue will prevail. allgame sees the princeton game saturday as a tougher climb. devin cannady, myles stephens and amir bell will make mike smith, quinton adlesh and the rest of columbia’s back court work all night. the tigers manhandled columbia back on the first friday of the league season handing them much the worst of the five ivy losses. the 72 – 56 rout was over early and the lions never managed any sort of a counterattack. besides the aforementioned trio, columbia was undone by jerome desrosiers who went 4 – 5 from three point range. the lions haven’t whipped the other ivy felines since back in february of 2014 in a rip roaring 53 – 52 game at jadwin. since that glorious evening, eight straight fails. the tigers have dropped four straight coming into the weekend and appear more vulnerable than usual. then again the lions have dropped nine straight to the princetons including, if you really want to nauseate yourself, the february 2016 collapse at levien when a very good lion team blew six point leads in regulation and overtime to fall 88 – 83. time for a bit of payback say we.
with three weeks remaining in league play, five teams are battling for the last two spots in the ivy tournament. holding serve on home courts will be crucial to emerging from this scrum (to mix just two sports metaphors). columbia has four straight games at levien and going 3 – 1 over that stretch will have them at 7 – 5 on the season and probably still in contention when they hit the road for harvard and dartmouth to conclude the campaign. one of those wins must come this weekend.
peace out and d up,
paulie b
GO Lions!