Loss to Yale Doesn't Diminish Lions' Hope

For a few seconds, Joe Jones had to act like a senior player, not a head coach. While Joe's older brother James called a time-out with just under three minutes left, the younger Jones bounced around the scorer's table, pounding his chest in an attempt to rile his team and his home fans. For that moment, Levien was rumbling. There was a confidence in the building that Columbia was going to pass Yale en route to its fourth-straight win and take one step closer to a 7-7 Ivy finish.

But Columbia didn't have enough magic left in the tank. Yale's center Dominick Martin and elusive point guard Eric Flato sealed James Jones' fifth win over his brother. Martin scored five points down the stretch, including a critical and-one play that put the Elis up by seven with 57 ticks left on the clock.

Columbia took a last gasp with 29 seconds left when Mack Montgomery hit a layup to make it a two-possession game, but Yale was already in the double bonus, and there was little Columbia could do.

"I think this is a different feeling in terms of a loss," senior co-captain Dalen Cuff said. "In the game, Yale played hard. It never feels good to lose... but it's not like it was earlier in the season."

The Lions lost to a more experienced and talented Yale team that took care of business down the stretch. Columbia had done that effectively against Penn and Princeton the weekend before and handled Brown Friday night, so the feeling afterwards was not one of spiraling ineptitude but rather surmountable disappointment. There is no doubt that a loss is still a loss, but instead of heading to the final week of practice lacking a sense of purpose or ability, this team has shown it can compete with the top teams in the conference. Two out of the three times at home, they came out on top.

"I just think we're playing better basketball," Jones said. "We didn't play particularly well in the second half. ... I thought Yale played with a little more effort than we did."

Jones' team, after shooting 50 percent in the first half, converted just 23 percent of their shots in the final 20 minutes and none of their 11 three-point tries.

In the team's win over Brown the night before, almost every shot rolled the Lions' way. And Columbia had a new experience to deal with-managing a lead against a team it should beat. Jones had to help his team keep its focus and manage a double-digit lead in the second half, but, in the end, it was the team's first conference win that did not come down to the wire.

In this post-Penn-Princeton-sweep world, Columbia has to deal with the experiences that come with being a talented team. This weekend they had a chance to test that confidence at home and for the most part succeeded. Next weekend, the team has to do it on the road.

Traveling to Harvard and Dartmouth are not easy tasks, but both of those squads are struggling. Columbia should have extra incentive to win, since it essentially collapsed in the second half to both teams in home losses earlier this season.

Until the final buzzer sounded Saturday night, there was buzz that this team could finish at .500. With a strong performance next weekend, 6-8 overall would not be bad either.