For the first time in nearly two weeks, the men's basketball team came out on top, securing a 58-41 home win over Penn.
The Lions (11-13, 3-7 Ivy) started strong against Penn (7-19, 4-5 Ivy), led by the freshman backcourt duo of Maodo Lo and Grant Mullins. The two guards led the Light Blue with eight points apiece in the first half, as Lo followed a strong performance against Princeton with another solid night. Mullins bounced back from a forgettable outing in which he shot 2-of-10 from the floor and missed all four of his three-point attempts.
A pair of threes by Lo capped off a hot run for the Lions and gave the home team a 25-11 lead with 6:55 to go in the first half, and senior forward John Daniels gave Columbia a boost with his hustle. Daniels tumbled into press row to keep alive a possession that resulted in a Lo trey, and came up with a huge block at the other end to give the Lions an additional spark.
Senior point guard Brian Barbour drilled a three-pointer to put the Lions up 28-11, and after Penn went on a 14-6 run, he hit a floater as the clock was winding down to give Columbia a 35-25 halftime lead.
The second half got off to a very rough start for both teams. After more than seven minutes of play, the two squads had only eight second-half points combined, and with 3:58 remaining in the game Columbia's shooting clip for for the second half sat at a dismal 11.1 percent.
The Lions had a brief scare when Lo came off the floor limping after being called for a travel, but he eventually came back in as Columbia secured the win and snapped a three-game losing streak.
