got one

having fallen way behind in ithaca before rallying frantically to lose by one stinking point, the lions chose a different tactical approach in their home court rematch with cornell. tai bibbs hit a layup and free throw fifteen seconds into Saturday’s ivy battle and the lions had the better of the battle for most of the evening. josh warren put the big red up 16 – 13 with 8:45 remaining in the first half, but the lions clawed to a 28 -23 halftime lead. matt morgan tied it up at 33 all at the 17:27 mark of the second period, but the lions went on their most efficient run of the game and led by eleven with 6:41 to go.  gabe steffanini, who led all scorers on the night with 24, was at his best during this spurt scoring 12 points in two and a half minutes. when the bergen catholic product had finished his work, quinton adlesh took over and tallied seven of his 21 points, the last two coming on a lovely step back jumper from the right elbow with five seconds left on the shot clock and 14 seconds left in the game. still, the outcome was uncertain until steffanini hit two free throws with seven seconds remaining, creating the 73 – 70 result that withstood riley voss’s heart stoppingly close three pointer which rimmed out as time expired.

now 1 – 1 in league play, columbia awaits the annual visit of the killer p’s. first place princeton pulls into levien on friday night followed by penn on saturday. the tigers are unlikely to be as defensively lax as cornell and they are bigger across the lineup. guard/forward myles stephens poses the greatest matchup challenges for the lions and we expect coach engles to have to run randy brumant, pete barba and maka ellis, at least, at the senior. devin candy, 19.5 ppg,  has tormented columbia since his freshman debut on morninside heights and the sharpshooting guard will be a handful. allgame was greatly encouraged by quinton adlesh’s yeoman defensive work against ivy scoring champion matt morgan on saturday night, though, and we expect him to make cannady sing for his supper. that defensive effort will have to include boxing cannady off the boards, because the guard is the tigers leading rebounder, snatching 6.2 nightly.  he is joined in the backcourt by first year phenom jaelin llewellyn.  the young virginian tallies 9.5 per contest. perhaps the most dangerous tiger guard, though, is myles stephens.  listed at 6′ 5″, he plays longer than that and at 210 lbs is a handful down on the blocks.  he averages 13.6 ppg while grabbing 6 boards nightly. this back court trio will  test the currently hot lion pair of steffanini and adlesh.  richard aririguzoh is 6′ 9″ and will be a much tougher matchup for patrick tape than the cornell front court proved.  the tiger center contributes 11 points and 5 rebounds to princeton’s exertions.  tape’s ten point, eleven rebound, five block performance against the big red was crucial in the lions’ first ivy win.  we hope he is similarly productive come saturday, but he’ll not only have to contend with messr aririguzoh.  coach mitch henderson can run 6′ 10″ will gladden at patrick.  he’ll have to contend with jerome desrosiers, sebastian much and noah bramlage as well.  so messr tape is going to need significant help from randy brumant who has been emerging as an undersized rim protector and rebounder as well as from first year ike nweke on the boards.  the matchup problem is one of numbers as well as size.  the tigers simply have more front court options than the lions and columbia will need to avoid the too frequent fouls that have undone them in a number of games already.

last february 1, the lions slaughtered a demoralized princeton at levien.  the 85 – 60 whipping was the lions best work last year and featured kyle caitlin’s finest game in blue. this go round, the tigers should be feeling frisky, fresh and eager to defend first place in the league as well as exact revenge for that defeat.  columbia has been playing tough as late and should not be an easy out for the visiting barons of south jersey.  we look for steffanini and adlesh to test the tiger defense sufficiently to keep things close, at least, most of the night.

penn will likely be looking to even it’s record at 2 -2 on saturday.  and the lions had no answer against the quakers last season.  their biggest threat remains forward a. j. brodeur.  the broad shouldered power forward leads the quakers in pretty much everything, 15.3 ppg, a heady 8 rebounds nightly, 3.5 assists and, since apparently he has the time, one and a half blocks per contest.  all this despite missing his most important  backcourt supporter, ryan betley, all season.  it was betley’s absence that hurt the franklins most in their two league play opening losses to Princeton.  the lions will certainly have more of a chance with the 6′ 5″ guard sidelined than they did last year when the quakers dropped them twice. devon goodman is only 6 feet tall and his partner antonio woods only 6′ 1.”  that gives the lions a size advantage that should help defensively.  still, the quaker duo averages 22.5 between them, so limiting will be crucial to a light blue win. patrick tape and the rest of the lion bigs will have to contain first year center 6′ 10″ michael wang from taiwan.  wang averages 10 points and 4 rebounds per game.  those numbers pretty much mirror tape’s production so a decisive winner of this matchup will probably lead his crew to victory. let’s also hope the nausea inducing ride down from ithaca saps some of the quaker spirit.

splitting the season series with cornell allows coach engles to ponder now the possible ways to play spoiler in the league, at least.  a win over one of the southern ivies will be a magnificent first step in this regard and allgame will be howling from his seat for every lion bucket, board or stop.  we said it last week and we’ll say it again.  this team is not so bad as its record.  relevance awaits!  smash Princeton!!  throttle penn!!

d up and peace out,

paulie b