Columbia Sweeps Yale And Brown

After two consecutive weeks of playing Cornell—and two double-digit losses—the Columbia men’s basketball team swept Yale and Brown at home in the first full weekend of Ivy play. While neither Lion victory compared to the drubbings the Big Red put on the Bulldogs and Bears, the sweep ended a stretch of six games during which the Lions went 1-5 and raised their record to .500 in league play.

“If you want to be considered one of the best teams in the Ivy League you have to win the back the back,” junior guard Niko Scott said. “It’s just a stepping stone towards the goal of being in contention for the Ivy title.”

Both games also represented a return to the swarming type of defense the Light Blue exhibited before losing five of six games in late December and January. After allowing Cornell to shoot nearly 50 percent, Columbia forced Yale and Brown to shoot less than 40 percent and held both opponents below 60 points.

The defensive intensity first picked up at the start of the second half on Friday, with the Lions facing a nine-point deficit against the Bulldogs. After a sloppy first half in which both teams turned the ball over 10 or more times, Columbia cut Yale’s lead over and over but struggled to erase it fully.

Down 29-20, the Lions went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to one. The spurt was highlighted by a breakaway dunk from sophomore forward Asenso Ampim. Ampim has struggled to finish around the basket, going 7-for-18 over the weekend, but he took advantage of two breakaway opportunities to get the 1,200-person crowd on its feet.

“Sometimes you need something to galvanize the crowd and more importantly our team,” Ampim said. “Any chance we have to do that I just try and do it.”

Despite the shift in momentum, the Bulldogs clung to their lead until a Scott three-pointer tied the game at 35 with 9:45 to play. Yale then took the lead again only to see senior forward/center Jason Miller score twice to tie the game. Miller led the Lions with 16 points and 11 rebounds, both game highs.

Miller’s pair of layups ignited a 12-0 run during which the Light Blue finally took its first lead of the game when junior guard Patrick Foley, playing with a stress fracture in his foot, scored a layup off of a turnover. Foley has been given what he calls an “NBA-style” practice schedule due to the injury and coach Joe Jones has tried to limit his playing time. Yet, Jones ended up playing Foley more minutes than he wanted in both games over the weekend.

“He kind of changes the game when he gets in,” Jones said Saturday. “I didn’t know he played so many minutes tonight. I just hate taking him out. When he comes in the game he just gives us so much confidence.”
Once the Lions went in front, they led for the final three minutes in recording the 53-42 victory. Yale scored 15 points in the second half, making just six shots and shooting 23.1 percent. Senior forward Ross Morin and junior guard Alex Zampier, the Bulldogs’ two leading scorers went a combined 4-for-20 from the field.

“We played pretty solid defense in the first half, too—they just had a lot of second chance points,” Foley said. “Mainly it was just about finishing possessions and not taking that last five seconds off.”
Saturday against Brown, Columbia again managed to maintain their intensity for an entire game and pull away in the second half.
The Light Blue entered the break down one after sophomore Adrian Williams hit a three-pointer at the end of the first half for Brown. The Bears used a 23-9 advantage on the glass and 13 offensive rebounds to shoot 46 percent.

“I thought overall they hurt us on some backdoor cuts in the first half,” Jones said. “They had some offensive rebound putbacks that really improved their average. They rushed us on the glass so that has to be a focal point going into next week because both games we got beat on the glass pretty good. That’s why I thought that they had a good field goal percentage.”

The game see-sawed for the first five minutes of the second half until a Foley jumper sparked a 9-2 run which put the Lions up 46-39 with 10 minutes to play. The Lions built their lead to as much as 12 but the Bears then switched to a 1-3-1 zone, disrupting the Columbia offense.
Brown got as close as four points but Foley’s free-throw shooting down the stretch iced the game.

“He knows when the game is on the line,” Jones said. “He senses it and he makes plays. Pat just makes plays that you can’t coach.”
Foley was one of three players in double figures as Scott scored 12 points and Miller again led the Lions with 14. Scott, who struggled to shoot from the floor on Friday, shot an efficient 57 percent.
“He’s been unbelievable,” Jones said. “I’m so proud of him. I can’t tell you how proud I am of this kid. As a coach you have to have guys that really start to understand what it takes to be a great player and what it takes to be a leader.”

Where Scott has made the biggest impression on Jones is where his team excelled over the weekend—defense and attitude.

In the second half, Columbia held Brown below 30 percent shooting from the field, just as it did with Yale. However, Jones felt the low second half percentages were a result of an entire game’s worth of defense.
With a trip to Penn and Princeton next weekend, both of whom Columbia has struggled against historically on the road, that defense will need to be maintained.