allgame is still trying to shake the last giddy vestiges of the cumbb’s frantic 74 – 72 comeback win over brown at levien yesterday afternoon from his noggin. that win, the lions first league victory since february 16 last year, revealed all the tenacious talent that the boys had flashed in coming back against loyola and fairfield and in downing now 45th ranked villanova in philadelphia back in november. yesterday was sweeter than those previous delights because it came against an ivy opponent. and now, as they get ready to play the second half of the league schedule (rematches against each of the other ivies) they are way down (dead last in the league) but far from out. indeed, a sweep of their foes on a trip to new hampshire and massachusetts this upcoming weekend will have them at 3 – 6 and no worse than one game out of fourth place and the final tournament playoff slot.
but from my general purpose i digress. let me recount the thrilling final minutes of saturday’s battle. with 5:40 to play, brown’s ace, kino lilly jr. finally shook off gianni cobb to make the score 67 – 57 in favor of the visitors. significantly that was lilly’s first made basket since the 13:27 mark of the first half. cobb had chased and harried lilly without cease, bouncing off and around single and double picks to stay with the senior out of prince george county, maryland. when cobb was not working, junior kenny noland made sure not only that lilly could not score but that he’d have trouble facilitating the offense of his teammates, cutting off passing lanes and slapping at lilly’s dribble. but now that he had finally found a bit of operating space, lilly followed his lay up thirty seconds later with a jumper that pushed the lead to 69 -57 for the boys from providence. the squads traded possessions for another eighty seconds before surprise starter gerard o’keefe, a first year guard from tennessee, hit a jumper from the right side of the lane to bring the light blue within ten at the 3:53 mark. half a minute later, zine beddri battled for a rebound and got the ball out to kenny noland who raced up the north side line before spotting messr o’keefe racing toward the bucket from the other side of the floor. noland hit the first year with an accurate pass that o’keefe gathered before eurostepping to the rim for a lay in and his twentieth point on the day. lions down eight. twenty seconds later, avery brown forced a turnover mid-court and drove the lane, picking up a foul. brown was a shaky free throw shooter early in his career on morningside but has steadily improved and he wasted little time before draining yjr two foul shots that brought the lions within 69 – 63. with a bit more than two and half minutes remaining, brown guard lyndel errold missed the front end of a one and one opportunity. the ball banged off the rim, off a brown player, off columbia;s zine beddri and landed on the floor where o’keefe continued his heroics by laying out and corralling the pumpkin before alertly tossing it up to blair thompson who passed out to a streaking ken noland who again got to the rack for a lay n that brought columbia within four with 2:31 remaining. and here, with the crowd bellowing for more, coach engles chose to use his final timeout. in allgame’s opinion, it was his finest moment in a well coached game. you could see noland and o’keefe sucking wind as they headed to the bench. they both quickly downed cups of water on the bench. in the yale and princeton games especially, the lions had been outworked by slightly fresher teams down the stretch. we don’t know if engles had these failures in mind or if he had noticed the gassed looks on his guys faces, but the pause gave them the breather they needed and allowed coach to set up his in bound defense. on that inbound play, zine beddri made like a defensive back and intercepted the pass near the mid-court stripe where he was immediately fouled by messr lilly. the bruins were in the bonus penalty and beddri sank two free throws with 2:31 remaining that cut the deficit to 69 – 67.
let me catch my breath. on the ensuing throw in, brown’s wrisby-jefferson lost the ball out of bounds in front of the lion bench but columbia returned the favor and immediately turned the ball back over on an errant pass by noland. messr wrisby-jefferson atoned for his turnover by driving the ball for a lay up and his team leading 16th point of the afternoon. following a couple of columbia free throws and one by the visitors’ aaron cooley, brown led 72 – 69 with ninety seconds to play. that remained the score with just :21 on the clock when noland launched a lion trey. the ball caught the back of the rim and caromed right where o’keefe continued his sparkling ivy league debut performance by boxing out a brown defender who fouled him in going for the rebound. of course, o’keefe drained the two freebies bringing the light blue to within one at 72 – 71. and then, the final wide smiles of the gods shone on columbia as brown’s senior leaders, kino lilly jr and aaron cooley bungled the subsequent in bound play and committed a five second violation. kenny noland drove the lane on the next lion play and drew a foul going to the charity stripe with sixteen seconds to play. he made the first to tie the game, and then clanked the second. but wait! noland did exactly what every free throw shooter is taught and followed his shot managing to tap the ball into a scrum where it popped over and out to avery brown who threw up a hurried and off balance three point attempt that bounced left where it was gathered and gently banked back in by an alert blair thompson who recorded his 16th rebound (and 6th offensive board) of the game and finally gave the lions a 74 -72 lead. the bruins had a full seven and half seconds to tie it up or win it and got the ball into their floor leader’s hands but the magnificent o’keefe finished his performance by closing off kino lilly jr’s path to the bucket and forced him into an off balance three that missed everything. the lions win.
columbia commences its 2025 travels through new england at remote dartmouth on valentine’s day. the big green shot lights out going 16 – 24 from the three point line and racing to a 53 – 31 halftime advantage. columbia scored 58 in the second stanza but never seriously threatened the big green in falling 95 -89. the lions have generally played well at leede arena but must carry over the staunch defensive work they exhibited against brown if they are to continue their climb back to relevance in the ivies. dartmouth features a version of cornell’s up tempo, high frequency three point shooting and midway through the league schedule has a chance to make the ivy tournament. we count on the light blue to frustrate that expectation on the 14th. the following evening, the lions owe payback to a crimson five that humiliated them in the paint at levien back on the first. robert hinton tallied 28 points on 10 -15 shooting while chandler pigge recorded 26 on 10 -16. the columbia big men might have just as well stayed home as they bore the greatest responsibilty for a 90 -82 failure. allgame plans on being in the stands behind the lion bench at lavietes this saturday, weather permitting and anticipates columbia’s third ivy win of the campaign.
whence this optimism? one league win, one hot game from a hitherto underused first year, one afternoon of getting to every loose ball, snagging every crucial rebound, actually playing defense for a full thirty seconds at at time. small sample, no? we think not and prefer to look at a few particulars of the lions’ awful ivy start. first, as we pointed out weeks ago, they were gifted the toughest first three games possible to open. the rout by cornell, however, remains one of their two worst performances. the next two losses were dismal psychological collapses and perhaps coach engles’s worst stretch of coaching during his entire tenure. the light blue led yale for thirty minutes of their contest before wilting down the stretch and not getting a single fifty-fifty ball or key rebound. to allgame’s eyes the entire starting five, the players who have logged the most minutes, seemed drained. engles did not get the right subs on the floor at the right time. yale’s maestro, james jones, on the other hand, made sure he got important minutes on the bench for scoring leader john poulakidas and his key rebounders nick townsend and casey simmons. that coddling added up to the extra calories they had available to burn down the stretch of the elis’ 92 – 88 comeback victory. the meltdown two days later in princeton was even more dramatic in terms of points advantage lost (the lions were up by 22 in the second half), but frankly, that greater lead was fashioned against a princeton team that shot horribly. however, over the last seven minutes of play, the lions melted in the face of a tiger full court press. three weeks ago, at least, they did not have a clue about how to advance the ball against pressure much less make a team pay for an over commitment to back court defense. engles might have spent some time on those basics. no doubt the two wasted opportunities against two of the best teams in the league took a toll on the squad and, quite frankly, they did not show up for the fiasco in philly where they fell to penn 93 – 78 in a revolting effort. more hurtfully, they lost offensive leader geronimo rubio de la rosa to a non-contact ankle injury early in the second half, kiboshing even vain hopes of a comeback and throwing offensive rotations into chaos for the beatings from dartmouth and harvard. with de la rosa gone, the entire three point shooting effort diminished. the gutty rebound against brown we take as a leading indicator of a better late than never re-set of focus and purpose. a successful second half of the ivy season seems attainable and in a year when none of the league’s schools are very good, fourth place is still a possibility.
peace out and d up,
paulie b