bitter

the columbia lions men’s basketball team concluded its decade with a last second loss to the great danes of suny albany. the dogs arrived at levien less than an hour and a half before tip off, having endured a southward trek from the capital in just miserable weather. nevertheless, they seemed rather sprightly as they surged out to a 9 – 0 advantage before the light blue realized a game was happening around them. their attentions having been gotten, our heroes played well for the rest of the first half and left the floor trailing by a mere point 25 – 26.

the two squads traded points over the first six and a half minutes of the second stanza.  still trailing by one, 38 – 39, columbia went on its best run of the night behind a couple of tai bibbs (17 points) three pointers and sophomore forward ike nweke’s (14 points, 12 rebounds) stalwart work on the blocks and boards.  over that exhilarating stretch, the lions crafted an eight point lead.  the final five and a half minutes (which took twenty five minutes to complete), however, were an exhausting slow bleed out by the light blue.  the albany squad patiently and flawlessly executed the only strategy available to a trailing team in such circumstances.  they prevented the lions from 1) consuming too much time on possessions by 2) fouling fairly quickly on each columbia trip downcourt and 3) scoring every time they had the ball.  now columbia’s response to this strategy needs must be to 1) run down the clock as much as possible on each possession  2) make their free throws when fouled and finally 3) make sure that albany did not score, especially from three point range.  the still nauseous feeling i cannot  shake finds its genesis in albany’s superior execution of its obligations.  an especially maddening outcome as the lions essentially accomplished two of its three goals.  they succeeded in getting the ball into the hands of mike smith, who did a competent job of eluding the suny defenders for a time and draining his free throws when fouled.  indeed, smith went 14 – 16 from the foul line on the night and did not miss the two he did during those five and half minutes from hell.  indeed, we can delay no longer in praising smith’s work for the evening – 28 points, 5 assists and, since he apparently had the time, 7 rebounds.  but columbia, which did a nice job for thirty five minutes limiting albany’s two leading scorers – guards cameron healy and ahmad clark, could not close them out when it mattered most.  they similarly failed to stymie sophomore forward malachi de sousa.  those three players let triples rain down from deep or got to the rim when columbia absolutely had to get a stop.  and so when young messr healy calmly cashed a free throw with less than a second to play – the great danes, to the exuberantly vociferous delight of their fans, completed their relentless comeback for a 67 – 66 victory.

albany shot 13 – 27 from beyond the arc and that 48% efficiency was enough to gainsay not only smith’s stellar turn but the exertions of tai bibbs (17 points on a couple of treys and some very athletic scores in transition) and ike nweke (14 points and 12 rebounds for the sophomore’s first double double).  the lions enjoyed a twelve point advantage from the charity stripe but their failure to more aggressively contest the perimeter gave that edge away.  or understood from the opposite perspective, their 6 – 20 from three point range cooked their goose.  though bibbs finally started to provide some points from the wing, jake killingworth continues to struggle to find his three point stroke.  the lions ball movement too often yielded nothing when killingworth hoisted a brick.  we don’t want to be too hard on jake, though, as he has done battled on the boards throughout the non-conference schedule as well as working terrifically on defense.  but his offensive struggles have highlighted how much the light blue misses gabe stefanini (and how much we yearn for his return by the start of ivy play) as well as the importance of first year jack forest, who has missed the last two games, to columbia’s attack.  the struggle against albany on the perimeter mirrored columbia’s woes up in hamilton, new york just before christmas in the dust up with colgate.  the red raiders shot 44% (14 – 32) from the arc as compared to the lions’ 7 – 26 (27%) effort.  that’s 21 points right there and pretty much explains the light blue’s 19 point loss.

coach engles escorts his team to orono tonight to tangle with maine’s black bears.  that freshman laden squad should provide the lions with their first road win of the season (we discount the romp over ccsu at mohegan sun as that was a neutral site victory) and perhaps cleanse their palates of the albany collapse.  but they have to close out on the perimeter!  never has our closing exhortation been more appropriate.

d up and peace out,

paulie b