Hoops hits the road for Ivy games

The routine is different, the travel is different, the hotels are different, and even the locker rooms are different.

When Columbia takes to the road this weekend, very little will be familiar off the court. Once the Lions do take the floor, they will want to make sure to get off to a strong start so that those distractions become less of a factor and hostile crowds don’t get a chance to get into the game.

The Light Blue travels to Hanover, N.H., this Friday to take on Dartmouth, and then travels to Boston for a Saturday matchup with Harvard. Earlier this year, the Lions rebounded from a 74-45 thrashing at the hands of the Crimson to down the Big Green 63-51. Starting with that game, Columbia (9-13, 3-5 Ivy) has gone 3-2 in conference play. If they hope to continue their climb through the conference standings, head coach Joe Jones’ squad will need to make sure to have energy and focus from the opening tip.

Until this past weekend, the Lions had played five straight Ivy League games within the friendly confines of Levien Gymnasium. Columbia ran into trouble in four of those games due to sluggish starts, and in three of the four the Light Blue never managed to get back into the game.

Following a 79-64 drubbing at the hands of Yale on Feb. 6, Jones and sophomore Noruwa Agho pointed to the Lions’ lack of intensity early on as the major culprit in the embarrassing home loss. In that contest, the Bulldogs led the Light Blue 48-29 at halftime, a hole Jones’ players simply could not dig themselves out of—despite cutting the deficit to 12 midway through the second half.

“When you spot a team 20 points, your chances are slim to make a comeback,” Agho explained at the time.

That game was an accurate representation of Columbia’s five home games as a whole, particularly the team’s first half woes. The night before, the Lions needed a dominant second half performance to overcome a nine-point deficit to beat Brown, leaving the Jan. 30 contest against Dartmouth as the only outing in the entire home stand in which the Light Blue took control from the start.

In contrast, both of their road games last weekend saw the Lions start hot, a crucial component of success away from home.

“I think it helps,” Jones said of getting off to a good start, “I think it helps your confidence, especially on the road.”

Last Friday against Princeton, Columbia scored the first five points and opened up a 20-9 lead. Jones labeled the first half, after which the Lions led the then-Ivy League leaders 27-24, one of the best halves he’d seen his team play all year. Even though the Tigers used a steady, mistake-free second half to pull out a 55-45 win, the Light Blue built on that performance the next night in Philadelphia.

Behind an offensive explosion from senior tri-captain Niko Scott, the Lions jumped out to a 14-5 advantage that would turn into a 35-28 halftime lead. Jones credited Columbia’s leaders, Scott, fellow tri-captain Kevin Bulger, and Agho, the team’s top scorer, for bringing energy and toughness to the game’s early start.

Jones elaborated, saying, “I thought, overall, we had great energy. I thought Niko [Scott], Noruwa [Agho], and Kevin Bulger brought great energy into the game right away—we kind of took the game over, right away.”

At the same time, Jones pointed to the perseverance of his squad against Penn as another key factor in pulling out their first road win in Ivy play.

“I just thought we made play after play, and that was the difference in the game,” Jones said. “That was the difference with the night before [against Princeton]. We didn’t make those plays. Then, Saturday night, we made them.”

Building off that win will require both a strong start and timely contributions in the second half. Against Dartmouth on Friday, Columbia will face off against a strong backcourt in Robby Pride, Ronnie Dixon, and Jabari Trotter.

“Their three guards really hurt us [in the last game],” Jones said. “They’re just very good off the dribble, they’re terrific mid-range shooters, and [Robby] Pride made some big threes against us.”

The responsibility will fall on Lions’ three guards, Agho, Scott, and particularly Bulger, Columbia’s defensive ace, to clamp down on their counterparts. If the Light Blue can manage to keep the Big Green’s crafty guards out of the lane, it will have a good chance of heading to Cambridge with a 4-5 league mark looking to reach .500.

Once there, though, Jones’ players will have their hands full with a Harvard team that blew open their game in Morningside Heights with a full-court pressure defense that caused all kinds of trouble for Columbia.

“Against Harvard, their speed, quickness, and athletic ability are really the big keys,” Jones concluded.

The injured Patrick Foley, the Lions’ third tri-captain and starting point guard, will have to watch the second round of this matchup from the sideline. Despite Bulger’s steady performance in his absence, Foley’s ball-handling ability may be missed. Scott and freshman Brian Barbour will be called on to help share the responsibility bringing the ball up this weekend, especially against a Crimson team that forced several early turnovers in the last meeting.

“Harvard is having a great year. They’re more athletic than Dartmouth, and they play a little faster, so they present a different kind of problem,” said Jones.

He pointed to their depth off the bench as a reason for their ability to play a faster-paced game than many other Ivy League squads.

With such a tough matchup waiting in Cambridge, Jones acknowledges the importance of winning the first one in Hanover.

“I think it’s big. I know I feel different [after a loss], and I’m sure [the players] do too. I think it’s hard to be on the road and lose the first one—and come back and win the second one,” Jones said. “When you win the first one, it becomes a little bit like a single game, and you stay in rhythm. When you lose the first one, I think it just makes it a little bit harder.”

But if the Lions do bring the same intensity and road mentality they showed last weekend against Penn and Princeton, they may very well be heading to Harvard late Friday night preparing for a big time showdown at a hostile arena and a chance to prove themselves against one of the Ivy League’s best squads.