It was an exciting weekend for men’s basketball as Columbia (2-2) came back from an eight-point deficit to defeat Bucknell on Tuesday night before traveling to Syracuse to take on the No. 10 team at the Carrier Dome. Despite a strong effort by the Lions, the Orange was able to take the game 85-60. The Light Blue will try to bounce back when it faces off against Sacred Heart on Monday.
After leading the Bucknell Bison (4-3) by three at the half, the Lions found themselves down 51-43 with just over 10 minutes remaining. But a 30-8 run by Columbia to close out the game gave the Light Blue its second victory of the season.
Guards Noruwa Agho and Niko Scott led Columbia’s comeback, combining for 24 of the Light Blue’s 44 second-half points. Agho, who led the Lions with 23 points for the second consecutive game, continued his impressive shooting from behind the arc, going 7-for-8. Though Agho is shooting 72 percent from 3-point land, he insists that this stat is really a reflection of his teammates giving him the ball in the right spots.
“I can’t thank them enough,” Agho said. “We’re playing really well as a team and I think that’s just helping me and my morale in general.”
After going 2-for-13 from the floor in the first two games of the season, Scott was finally able to find his groove against Bucknell, shooting 60 percent from the field and 50 percent from long range. Scott also emphasized the impact the team’s play has had on his individual performance.
“I feel like, as long as we’re playing together and doing what the coach is telling us to do, that my shots will come and I’ll get the other guys shots,” Scott said. “That’s just my role on this team.”
While the offensive explosion in the second half was key to the victory, even more crucial was the way Columbia’s forwards buckled down on defense.
“It couldn’t have happened without getting key stops during that run,” Scott said of the comeback. “We have to thank our forwards for really bodying up on their guys, ’cause their guys were attacking every time down the court.”
The Columbia frontcourt did a particularly good job containing Bucknell’s senior forward Patrick Behan in the second half. Behan had only five points in the second half after tallying 10 in the first.
Junior forward Asenso Ampim had a strong game defensively, notching seven rebounds, a block, and a steal.
“He single-handedly disrupted their offense and he’s just a force out there,” head coach Joe Jones. “When he’s out there playing, we’re just a much better team, and without him, I don’t think we win this game, to be honest with you. I thought he was tremendous.”
Though the Lions were outrebounded 16-14 in the first half, they finished the game with 38 rebounds to Bucknell’s 27.
“The fact that we were able to outrebound them by 11 really was the difference in the game,” Jones said.
The Light Blue’s 24 second-half rebounds gave them 11 second-chance points to the Bison’s four.
“I think a big thing was kind of those second-chance points,” senior guard Patrick Foley said. “We had a lot of second rebounds that kind of extended our run a little bit and I think that was huge.”
Foley led the Light Blue with seven assists, while only turning over the ball twice. He also had 13 points on 4-for-10 shooting in the contest.
The Lions traveled to Syracuse (6-0) on Friday with momentum from back-to-back wins, but the 10th-ranked team in the nation was too much for Columbia, as it fell 85-60.
Syracuse (6-0) opened the game with a 7-0 run that was ended when Agho made a layup off an assist from Scott, sparking a 10-4 run for the Light Blue. Though the Lions were able to keep the game close for most of the first half, they were never able to take the lead from the Orange, who entered halftime with a 36-27 advantage.
In the second half, Syracuse turned on the jets and outscored the Lions 49-33. The Orange used its tremendous zone defense to force the Light Blue to taking difficult shots and turn the ball over. The giveaways hurt badly, as Syracuse was able to score 29 points off of the Lions’ 20 turnovers.
“They do a great job—it’s definitely something different here, you can’t really simulate it in practice,” Agho said of Syracuse’s zone. “They make you take tough shots … and if you don’t execute and you don’t run the plays the same way every time, they can force you to turn the ball over or take tough ones. They did a great job and they converted on our turnovers and blew the game open.”
The Orange definitely did force the Light Blue to take tough shots, as Columbia took 21 shots from 3-point range. However, the Lions were able to convert 42.9 percent of these attempts. It was primarily turnovers and a weaker second-half defense that doomed Columbia.
“I thought overall we gave great effort, I just felt like the zone really did us in,” Jones said. “I thought we just turned it over, and we didn’t execute as well as we wanted to for a good portion of that second half.”
One player in particular that the Lions had a hard time containing was junior forward Wes Johnson. Johnson led the Orange with 26 points on 8-13 shooting. Both he and freshman forward Mookie Jones shot 80 percent from behind the arc.
Agho led Columbia in scoring with 22 points. Ampim and freshman forward John Daniels each had a team-high six rebounds. Daniels had an impressive game all around, as he also contributed seven points and two steals.
“John Daniels just played his tail off,” Jones said. “I thought he just gave great effort, he did all the little things we talked about.”
The Lions will look to get back on track when they travel to Fairfield, Conn., to take on the Pioneers tonight.
Sacred Heart (2-3) is currently riding a three-game losing streak that began with a 76-66 loss to Fordham on Nov. 18. Since then, the Pioneers have fallen to Atlantic 10 rival Xavier 105-65 and Big Ten foe Penn State 87-75. All three of these defeats came on the road.
Earlier in the season, Sacred Heart took on another Ivy squad, defeating Yale 92-86 in the Connecticut 6 Classic.
The player that will pose the most difficult challenge for the Light Blue is senior forward Corey Hassan. Hassan is currently leading his team with 26.0 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. He notched a season high 33 points in the Pioneers’ loss to Fordham, accounting for exactly half of their points.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
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