Light Blue Offense Emerges Against Crimson

The Columbia men's basketball team has struggled throughout the beginning of Ivy play this season due to its low offensive production in games against Penn and Cornell. But the team was able to recover its offense, and its record in the Ivy League this weekend, all due to their focus on offense.

At Harvard, junior swingman Mack Montgomery missed the first shot of the Harvard game, a three-pointer from wing, but the Lions proceeded to make their next eight consecutive three-point shots en route to their highest scoring output in a half all season. In the first half the Lions were shooting an impressive 11-13 from behind the arc and 61.8 percent from the field.

The Lions were able to be so efficient on offense by controlling the tempo of the ball game, focusing on pulling down offensive rebounds, and trying to get easy transition buckets. Not only did they get the boards, they also scored 26 points off turnovers and recorded 12 fast-break points.

"We came into the game looking to push the tempo a little bit," freshman guard Patrick Foley said. "We wanted to see if we could get some easy buckets that way, because we've been playing real methodical of late."

The Lions were able to control the game by working from the inside out. On a number of plays in the first half, Harvard's defense collapsed inside to cover junior forward Ben Nwachukwu, but Nwachukwu found a guard to take the open jump shot. Nwachukwu got three first-half assists, and more importantly, Columbia easily picked up the win.

In addition, the Lions' guards were able to make clean passes into the paint. The solid ball movement kept Harvard a step behind and left the passing lanes open. Columbia finished the game with an impressive 21 assists on 36 baskets, led by Foley with five assists and 13 points.

"I think the big thing was that our guards did a good job, when we got a steal, to get the ball to us right away," junior power forward John Baumann said. "A bunch of those passes, they were just leading me right to the rim, so I think you really need to give most of the credit to the guards there."

After Friday night's high offensive production of 90 points on 57.1 percent shooting, the Lions came out Saturday against the Big Green looking a bit sluggish. The Lions started the game 1-15 from the field, but remained in the lead in the first half because of offensive rebounding and solid free-throw shooting.

"We got the ball in the paint, but we just couldn't finish," said Columbia head coach Joe Jones, about the first-half shooting woes against Dartmouth. "I didn't think we took some strong shots inside. I thought we took some off-balanced shots, which we didn't make. They did a good job contesting our shots in the paint, and we just didn't make the shots in the lane."

Despite shooting 6-26 in the first, the Lions held a 24-20 lead going into the second half. While the Lions had struggled offensively in the previous three games, they now managed to break out of the funk with a productive second half. The Light Blue redeemed its first-half shooting by making 52.6 percent of its baskets in the second half, including 62.5 percent from three-point range.

"In the second half, I thought we got some good looks, especially late," Jones said. "We shared the ball a little bit and we got some good shots because of it."

Solid ball movement produced these open looks. In the second half, the ball-handling led to a scoring spree by Baumann, who finished with 21 points, including 13 in the second half.

After averaging a measly 46 points per contest their previous three games, the Lions broke through last weekend to average nearly 75 points a game. If this offensive production can continue for the remainder of Ivy season, the result should be the same: wins.