bloodied

for the second time in two meetings this season, the columbia lions mens’ basketball team blew a double digit lead against the harvard crimson. that hardwood fumble left the light blue in a tie for fourth place in the ivy league with the cantabs. having lost twice to tommy amaker’s crew this year, the lions have given the harvards claim to the fourth and final league tournament playoff spot should the teams finish with identical records. with only five games remaining, columbia probably has to win three games and hope that harvard wins no more than twice, if our heroes are to take to the floor at levien for the league playoffs. before we look at the likely scenarios for that devoutly to be wished for outcome, let’s quickly recap last weekend’s play.

on friday the sixteenth, the light blue jumped out to a 10 – 0 lead over dartmouth two and a half minutes into the game. thirty seven and a half minutes later, they booked their second victory of the season over big green , this time by a 73 – 63 score. the journey to that final result saw the lions build a 21 point lead at the 7:46 mark of the first stanza. at half time, they led by 17. the hanoverians had reduced that edge to 16 eleven and a half minutes into the second half, but it stood again at 17 with three and a half minutes to play. from there to the finish line, dartmouth fouled efficiently and scored often enough to bring their deficit down to nine points with just under a minute to play, but a late free throw by avery brown brought the difference back to that same early ten point gap. the lions were led by geronimo rubio de la rosa’s 25 points. columbia’s scoring leader shot 5 – 7 from three point range, leading the light blue’s long distance barrage (the team went 11 – 19, or 58% from the arc on the night). that efficiency made up for the team’s inability to do much inside. they were outrebounded 40 -33 in the contest and they got a mere nine points from their center trio of josh odonowu, zine bedri and jake tavroff.

on saturday evening, levien gymnasium was jammed for the most important mens’ basketball game in eight years. the loud contingent of harvard supporters complained all game long about their perception of official bias. foul calls against the crimson were frequently met with cries of disbelief or the shouted offers of “twice what you’ve been paid” to call the game differently. those of us sporting columbia gear, on the other hand, had to watch the zebras award the visiting cantabs literally twice as many free throws as they gave the lions. indeed, the 23 points harvard scored at the charity stripe represented 29% of their total for the evening and more than covered the point difference in the 80 – 75 final score. a less balanced fan would attribute the lions’ failure entirely to officiating bias. allgame, however, understands the discrepancy at the free throw line to be a consequence of the cantabs’ physical dominance down low. messrs ajogbor and okpara pummeled the light blue trio of josh odonowu, zine bedri and jake tavroff all evening, outscoring them by 32 – 12, an edge more significant than that gained at the charity stripe. although the overall difference in paint scoring was only 13 points, that narrower gap was forged by geronimo rubio de la rosa’s hard won 8 points off second half drives to the rim. but, just to offer another explanation for the loss, de la rosa’s gallant attacks on the glass were all he had to show for the evening. he went an agonizing 0 – 8 from three point range and for the second time against the cantabs this season, underperformed his season average in points. malik mack, harvard’s dynamic first year point guard, on the other hand, overproduced and scored 21 for the game.

all that information boils down to the sad fact that, in head to head competition this year at least, the columbia lions are not quite as good as the harvard crimson. eight points less good to be precise. the difference between the two squads is most apparent at center, where the lions must get physically stronger if they are to be regular contenders for the ivy tournament. with josh odonowu graduating that means jake tavroff and zine bedri need to muscle up a bit in the coming six months. we hope to see the same physical maturing on the part of blair thompson who can become a ferocious power forward in the ivies if he adds some muscle to his length.

that being said, allgame by no means throws in the towel on the 2023 -24 season. the lions must drop brown at levien tonight. yale tomorrow afternoon might be a bridge too far. ditto princeton at jadwin next friday. a win at the palestra over penn on the 24th might make the season finale against cornell consequential. devoutly to be wished lions fans!

peace out, d up

paulie b