Men Split Home Series

Midway through the Ivy League season, Columbia head coach Joe Jones went through the familiar process of adjusting his expectations.

"After the fourth game we were 1-3, and I just told the players 'It doesn't look like we can win a championship, so let's look at what we can achieve,'" Jones said Saturday night. "Looking at the record books, the '92-'93 season was the last time they'd gone .500."

With an 85-71 defeat against Yale on Friday and 77-68 victory over Brown on Saturday, this home weekend kept the Lions on track. Now sitting at 4-4, buoyed by the road sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth last week, Columbia has six games left to improve on the most successful season of Jones' tenure.

"Obviously we're going to try to win out," Jones said. "But we're really trying to put the program in a position to contend for a championship."

Yale and Brown came to Levien Gymnasium this weekend with that same goal but incomparable chances of achieving them. While the Bulldogs are chasing their first league championship since 2003, Brown is simply trying to salvage some respect this season. And it showed on the court-while Yale proved that they could reverse the tide of a game that was turning against them, Brown could only muster a timid effort that fell apart in the second half.

"Yale is so big, very experienced," Jones said. "Brown is not so experienced, but I thought they played very hard on both ends of the floor."

What seemed like a close game at halftime on Friday started out as anything but. Yale laid the foundation for a blowout, blocking shots, sinking threes, and jumping out to a 10-0 lead. It took Columbia over three minutes to get on the board, but once they were there, the points came thick and fast.

A 17-2 run over five minutes gave Columbia its first advantage of the game, with sophomore forward Joe Bova and freshman point guard Patrick Foley combining for 15 points. With Yale point guard and playmaker Eric Flato struggling at the other end, the Lions were in good position to knock off the title contenders and led at the break, 40-36.

Midway through the second half, however, the Bulldogs took control of the game. Flato, whose first-half performance drew constant cries of "air ball" from the fans on the Columbia side, rediscovered his form, and Yale turned its four-point deficit into a 15-point lead with 6:29 left.

"I try not to let my confidence waver too much," said Flato, who finished the evening with two steals and 26 points, leading all scorers. "It's a long game, and if you miss a few shots here and there, you make up for them later in the game."

The Lions never recovered from the Bulldogs' second-half onslaught. Foley led Columbia with 16 points and earned his first start against Brown on Saturday night with junior Brett Loscalzo out due to illness.

Brown set out their stall early in the first half, running a slow, deliberate Princeton-style offense. But with Columbia playing patient zone defense and some sloppy passing on both sides, the score stayed low.

With just under ten minutes left in the period, Brown was ahead 12-9 when sophomore guard K.J. Matsui checked into the game and calmly notched a three-pointer. That kicked off a six-minute string of eight straight threes, which left the Lions leading 24-21 three minutes from halftime.

"They [Brown] played zone, and Pat Foley and some of the guys found a way to pass me the ball," said Matsui, who prowled the perimeter all night on his way to a career-high 18 points.

But junior forward John Baumann stole the show with 21 points and nine rebounds. He sent Columbia into the locker room up 28-25-despite the team shooting just 37.5 percent-with a steal at one end of the court and a dunk at the other.

"He's one of the best players in the league, there's no doubt about it," Jones said. "He's been terrific; he's gotten a lot better on both ends of the floor. He's a much better defender, and that's probably what I'm most happy about. What's great about him is he doesn't look to make excuses for himself."

A 7-0 run after the break saw the Lions open up a 10-point lead that Brown never closed. Back-to-back threes from Baumann and Bova stretched the advantage to 16.

At the other end, Brown's pair of guards, Mark McAndrew and Damon Huffman, managed to make their presence felt with a combined 46 points. But according to Baumann, it was the Columbia guards who deserved the credit.

"They did a great job of splitting the defense and just getting in the lane," he said. "That really opened things up. Brown's defense had to scramble and we were able to make some open shots."

Though freshman guard Niko Scott was effectively contained, Foley contributed 14 points and a career-high seven assists and four steals.

"I had a few jitters, but I just tried to play my game," he said, having played more minutes this weekend than any of his teammates. "Then I think I settled into a nice little rhythm."

The game came to a staccato close as the Brown players, down by 13 with a minute left, fouled to buy themselves time and even forced Jones to put the starters back in for the dying seconds.

Columbia will face two teams at opposite ends of the standings again next weekend when they travel south to take on high-flying Penn and last-place Princeton.

Loose Balls...

Against Yale, the Lions shot a miserable 11.1 percent from beyond the arc in the second half ... Saturday night was only the second time Brett Loscalzo missed a start in three years ... Brown and Columbia combined for 22 three-pointers, the most in any Columbia contest.