alive

the columbia mens’ basketball team has played two and a half good games over the last two weeks. that was enough to put them in a three way tie for fourth place in the ivy league with brown and harvard. but for one poor quarter they would be in fourth by themselves. their run of solid play began at levien on january 27 when they hosted steve donahue’s quakers. the philadelphians grabbed the fourth and final spot in last spring’s ivy hoops tourney but have braved the 2023 – 24 campaign without last season’s league scoring leader, jordan dingle, who portaled to rick pitino’s st. john’s squad. additionally, they have battled for a few weeks now without this season’s offensive leader, senior clark slajchert. nonetheless, the undermanned quakers came ready to battle and behind beefy center nick spinoso’s 12 first half points played the lions to a standstill in the opening stanza, leaving for the locker room with a 43 – 41 edge. the second half saw the lions slow down spinoso’s bully boy effort inside (he was held to just 5 points in the second period). tyler perkins, though, took over as columbia’s tormentor in chief, dropping 17 of his game high 25 points in the period. nonetheless, the light blue, led by geronimo rubio de la rosa (who evenly divided his 24 points between the first and second periods) gradually took control of the contest and, at the 3:05 mark of the second half possessed an 11 point advantage at 82 – 71. just as the lion fans in the crowded (2,076) gymnasium were ready to relax, they were again forced to hold on to their hats for a frantic eighty five second finale as the philadelphians rallied behind tyler perkins’ free throw and subsequent three pointer as well as an old fashioned three point play from ed holland on a jumper in the paint and foul shot to pull within four at the 1:24 mark, 82 – 78. coach donahue, who spent most of that last minute and a half on his knees whistling for attention and shouting out defensive switches, schemed up the perfect answer for columbia’s inbound play with :38 seconds remaining and managed to force a pass to josh odonowu, probably the lions’ worst free throw shooter on the floor, and deliver an immediate foul. odonowu indeed missed the front end of his one and one trip to the charity stripe, but the quakers could not score and were forced to foul avery brown to stop the clock with twenty two seconds remaining. brown sank the first of his foul shots but missed the second putting the lions in front 83 -78. again the win seemed safe, but messr de la rosa fouled tyler perkins on a three point attempt and three made free throws brought the visitors to within 83 – 81. a foul shot be de la rosa with eight seconds left put the lions up three and blair thompson managed to steal the ball from penn’s sam brown before he could launch a desperation trey. lions win 84 – 81!

six days later, the light blue pulled into lavietes gymnasium in cambridge where they have not won since last decade. after racing out to a twenty point first period lead, the lions’ second half in cambridge this past friday was just lousy enough to result in a bitter 62 – 59 loss to their crimson hosts. tommy amaker’s cantabs shook off the lions early pyrotechnics and battened down their defensive hatches over the last twenty five minutes of the game while controlling the paint at both ends of the court. columbia’s giddy first half barrage from the three point arc suddenly evaporated while harvard’s first year stand out first year guard malik mack started to sink every shot he took on his way to 18 points for the night. simultaneously, coach amaker’s big men, chisom okpara (13 points, 7 boards) and justice agogbor (6 points, 10 rebounds) brushed aside the light blue’s interior defenders while locking down any attempt by jake tavroff , zine beddri or josh odonowu to score down low. just as hurtful was the absence of any significant contribution from the lions’ offensive star, geronimo rubio de la rosa, who shot 1 – 9 for the evening and scored but three points. shackling de la rosa and dominating the paint for the game’s final twenty five minutes, harvard flipped the script and the light blue found themselves at the end of the evening tied with dartmouth for last in the conference at 1 – 4.

the following afternoon found columbia on the floor at leede arena in hanover, nh where the lions had not won since 2016. the lions, still staggering from the collapse against the cantabs spent ten minutes trying to find their footing while their hosts kept beating them up the floor to the rim or drained their jump shots. they finally started to gain traction with the appearance of big jake tavroff who took over the game starting at the 10:10 mark of the opening half with a nifty feed to an open kenny noland who drained a three pointer to bring the light blue within four points. a minute later, tavroff spun in a layup of his own. with 8:26 remaining in the period, tavroff pirouetted before tossing in a short hook shot. two minutes later, tavroff deftly poked away a pass at the top of the key and took off down court for an emphatic dunk. with 4:26 showing on the clock, tavroff completed his assault with another layup. the lions had gone from seven down to ten up behind five and a half marvelous minutes from the 6′ 9″ long islander. dartmouth’s goose was well cooked over the second period as de la rosa rebounded from his fail in cambridge to toss in a season high 24 points. the lions cruised to a 72 – 56 win and immediately leaped from the bottom of the league into a three way tie for fourth with harvard and brown.

four hours from now they will have the opportunity to climb over one of those squads when they take on brown at the pizzatola sports center in providence. the last time the lions tamed bruno, it was in the confines of pizzatola five years ago when they prevailed 80 – 77. since then, mike martin’s various but always feisty crews have owned coach engles’s boys. brown’s current roster is led by juniors nana owusu-anane, a 6′ 8″ bruiser who tallies 15 points while snagging 9 rebounds nightly and kino lilly,iii, a six footer who averages 19 ppg. they are abetted primarily by 6′ 5″ junior aaron cooley who contribute 10 points and 7 boards per game and 6′ 8″ sophomore kalu anya who chips in 8 points and 5 rebounds per contest. the big brown forwards will have to be slowed down by columbia’s longer, leaner big men. the trio at center – josh odonowu, zine bedri and jake tavroff – in particular need to pacify messr owusu-anane who dropped 27 points and grabbed 18 rebounds in just 29 minutes against the lions in january ’23. we expect those three big men to be joined defending the brown bigs by lanky blair thompson, the 6’8″ sophomore is the prototypical twenty first century small forward and we do not spend enough time extolling his contributions to this improving lion five. he scores 9 points nightly via three pointers and snaky quick baseline attacks of the rim. just as, if not more, importantly, he grabs five boards per game while registering a steal and a block nightly. coach engles needs thompson to step up this afternoon.

today’s battle marks the end of the first half of the ivy league campaign for columbia. a win and a 3 -4 mark will ensure they are no worse than tied for the fourth and final spot in the ancient eight’s post-season tourney. as we tend to say every time we post – game of the year! beat brown!!

d up and peace out

paulie b