After winning its past four games because of decisive second halves, Columbia needed two more to push its winning streak to six. However, key runs in both contests forced the Lions to settle for a split at Brown and Yale over the weekend.

Against Brown, the second place team in the Ivy League, the Lions got off to a good start. After a back-and-forth first twelve minutes of the game, a Niko Scott three-pointer gave Columbia a slim 20-17 advantage. The Light Blue then went on a 13-7 run to give the club a 33-24 lead with 1:54 in the first half.

However, the momentum appeared to swing quickly when the Lions’ final three offensive possessions in the half resulted in missed opportunities. Scott stole the ball from Mark McAndrew and fed Asenso Ampim streaking up the court for what appeared to be an easy layup. However, Ampim took one too many steps, negating the bucket and what would have been an 11-point lead.

Another turnover by McAndrew led to another fast break, but this time an errant pass by John Baumann allowed Brown the opportunity to cut into the lead. Two free throws by Damon Huffman and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Adrian Williams turned what could have been a double-digit Light Blue lead into four.

“Obviously, we controlled most of the half,” coach Joe Jones said. “But, to be perfectly honest, if we don’t miss three layups and turn the ball over down the stretch, we’re probably up 11 points going into halftime.”

The Lions started the second half the way they ended the first: filled with offensive mistakes. After ending the half on a 5-0 run, the Bears continued that into the second half, extending the run to 18-0, before Baumann finally made a layup to cut the Brown lead to 42-35. Brown’s switch into a match-up zone affected the Lions, and they just did not make the necessary adjustments.

“They did a good job. They kind of played a tricky zone there,” Baumann said. “They had a couple of guys down low, and it was just one of those things. In the first half, I think we capitalized on them doing that, but in the second half, we just ran into a couple of problems.”

What was so noticeable during Brown’s run in the second half was the Lions’ falling back on bad habits. Offensively, they looked confused against Brown’s pressure zone and began to settle for three-pointers­—15 were taken in the second half, compared to eight in the first. Furthermore, because of the reliance on the three-point ball, Columbia’s field goal percentage fell from 54.2 percent in the first half to 27.6 percent in the second half.

“I thought they did a great job in the second half. They went 1-3-1 and we didn’t adjust to it well,” Jones said. “They spread us out a little more than they did in the first half, and we weren’t in position off the ball. They took us off the dribble and got to the rim. They made a nice run, and we just never really recovered.”

After a night that saw the Lions squander an opportunity to move up in the standings, the Yale game could have been a letdown. And, at the start, it appeared that it would be. After hanging even with the Bulldogs for the first eight minutes, Yale went on a 12-5 run to extend its lead to 27-18 with 6:10 to go in the first half. However, a run—this time by Columbia—brought the Lions back.

A layup by Ben Nwachukwu sparked a 13-5 run to end the half, which led to the Lions being down by only one point at the break. Just as in the game against Brown, the momentum at the end of the half carried over to the second half. After trading baskets for the first seven minutes of the half, two Ampim layups sparked what would be a decisive run. The layups brought the Lions within two with 12:39 to go. Over the next six minutes, the Lions went on a 17-4 run to take an 11-point lead, one that they would not relinquish as they cruised to a deceptively close six-point win.

As seen this weekend, the Lions were victims and champions of imperative runs in the second half. As the Light Blue looks to gain its seventh and eighth Ivy wins this weekend, it must be able to sustain these runs and not give up easy points to its opponents.