having just won their two best played games of this still green season, columbia’s ballers managed to drop consecutive contests by two stinking points. the fairfield stags stymied the lions up in connecticut, 82 – 81 in ot while the longwood lancers journied up from the virginian hinterlands to humble our heroes 70 – 69. we’ll confine our remarks to the longwood flop, which we witnessed.
although the gocolumbialions.com website found the loss “gut wrenching” and the spectator judged it the “heartbreaking” end of columbia’s (2 contest) undefeated home record, allgame thought the longwood dust up a curiously dispassionate fail despite the frantic back and forth of its last three minutes. the light blue played as though they were never in danger of losing but declined to mount a decisive run that might actually have put their visitors away. leading until just under six minutes remained and taking a final, brief, lead with 17 seconds remaining, for the second straight night the lions could not, in coach smith’s words, “get one stop.” with only six seconds on the clock, chris shields tallied longwood’s winning bucket off an assist from pesky lancer point guard leron fisher who had harassed lion stalwart maodo lo all evening, holding him to but 9 points while tallying 18 himself. in the process, fisher hung 4 personal fouls on the lion backcourt star, leaving the berliner defensively crippled to boot. as that drama played itself out at the top of the key, longwood’s resolutely tough logana nwogobo and khris lane had doled out similar punishment to the hitherto immaculate luke petrasek, holding the lanky long islander to ten points and saddling him, too, with four personals. meanwhile, lion forward alex rosenberg could only tally twelve while corralling but a single rebound. finally, spark plug isaac cohen(who left the game early via injury) was held to an 0-fer. the uninspired output from that distinguished quartet meant that grant mullins’s heroic 23 point, 7 rebound effort went for naught. despite shooting a better than season average 44% from beyond the arc, columbia showed itself vulnerable to quickness up top and muscle in the paint. that quickness had translated into lion fouls and lancer made free throws which spelled the difference on the scoreboard. we also have to admit that our heroes looked a bit tired down the stretch. the friday – saturday nailbiters took their toll and the visitors seemed a half step ahead of our heroes when it counted. we hope that the light blue take the lesson to heart and realize what they will have in store all league season long. the lion bench, so helpful in the first five games this year, was essentially invisible in the fairfield and longwood battles. we trust that coach smith will find the right personnel to spell effectively his starters so that they have something in the tank at the next crisis.
we also feel compelled to point out that, despite its upper class core, this is still a team looking for its identity. mullins has rejoined his classmates, rosenberg and lo – the ivies’ last two scoring champs – and has immediately stepped to the top of the points column. the light blue has to figure out how best to utilize this triple threat while simultaneously working in the offense of georgia bred sophomore kyle castlin, who has struggled to score early on, and forward lukas meisner who looks like the next front court star for the lions. the non-conference schedule is the time to work this all out.
in any case, the calendar drives on and tonight, just after this blog posts, columbia tips off versus the bucknell bisons who currently stand 3 – 3. one of those wins came against div iii shenandoah, but their other two wins are over robert morris and manhattan, both of whom will be playing the lions very soon. their three defeats have come in relatively close games against three quality programs – siena. penn state and wake forest. last season, columbia annihilated the bisons at levien behind a fine performance from maodo lo and perhaps the best all around game of the year from the now graduated cory osetkowski. this go round on bucknell’s lewisburg turf promises to be tougher. the pennsylvanians are led by 6′ 5″ senior guard chris hass who is tallying 19 points per game while grabbing 5 boards. hass is aided and abetted by 6′ 6″ sophomore forward zach turner who chips in 14 plus points nightly while snatching an additional half dozen rebounds. in the middle, 6′ 9″ center nana foulland is hauling down 7 boards per contest. inside and out, columbia best come correct.
returning home, the lions will host a storied big five program when phil martelli brings his atlantic 10 st. joseph’s crew to the heights. the hawks are led by 6′ 7″ senior forward isaiah miles who is putting up 16.5 ppg while gathering 7 boards each evening. he works the st. joe front court beside deandre bembry, a 6′ 6″ junior who contributes fourteen and a half points to the attack while grabbing 6 rebounds and dishing 4 assists. we trust they will put on the kind of performance that has long made philly a cynosure of college hoops and that the lions will be up to their challenge. quickest remedy for a two game losing streak? a two game winning streak. starts tonight in bucolic pa. get a grip o ye lion faithful. la lucha continua.
peace out and d up,
paulie b