last weekend, the lion hoops crew split two rousing battles in front of nearly packed houses. the games against yale and brown both featured the lions’ now tough, if not impenetrable, 2 – 3 zone, improved three point shooting and increased offensive contributions from the bench. those three things resulted in a win over the bruins after a disappointing loss to a very tough, if short benched, yale five. at 4 – 2 they stand tied with harvard for third place in the ivies and hold a two game lead over brown for the fourth spot in the inaugural league post season tournament. with four weekends of back to backs remaining, the lions can think realistically about a 9 -5 league record which would pretty much guarantee a tournament slot. 8-6 is perhaps more likely and that would leave the door open for coach engles’s crew getting nipped at the wire, but brown would have to go an improbable 6 -2 down the stretch to catch them.
to the battles that brought us to this point. if you had told paulie b that the lions would out rebound the bulldogs and that their bench would blister the visitors for 32 points while simultaneously holding four of the yalies five double point scorers under ten, he’d have told you the light blue undoubtedly broke a two game losing streak to james jones’s boys. he’d have been wrong, though. trey phills stepped up with 19 points and blake reynolds added 18 to combine with an incandescent performance by freshman miye oni whose 22 points, 8 boards and 4 assists led the way to an 87 – 78 win over our heroes. the lions led 40 – 38 after a seesaw first half and were up by five with twelve and a half minutes to play, but their guests went on an 11 – 0 run and though the light blue would close to within two at 67 – 65, in the end they could not overcome the bulldogs unconscionable 26 – 16 free throw advantage. with messrs phills and oni making all sixteen of their foul line attempts, the light blue’s 9 – 10 second half effort from the stripe was irrelevant. we are convinced that the officiating crew of gary prager, tim kelly and bernard clinton will shortly be consigned to that circle of hell reserved for the criminally near sighted, but we also saw that the lion zone sagged a bit under the patient bulldog pressure as the second half went on. whereas in the first half the yalies did much damage down in the paint where sam downey and reynolds gathered passes and quickly spun past lion defenders for reverse layups, the second half saw the visitors work the perimeter until a timely pass found an undefended shooter for a three pointer. reynolds, phills and oni all took advantage of these open looks. the lions battled against the efficiency of yale’s starters with 32 points from their bench which has largely been m.i.a. this season. c. j. davis tallied 12 while quinton adlesh got 8. lukas meisner battled enthusiastically on the boards, grabbing a game high nine boards. well fought, but still a defeat and columbia’s losing streak to the new haven residents now stands at three. the latest dust up was the closest of the recent battles and we hold out some hope for payback at the john j. lee amphitheater the first saturday in march.
brown’s coach mike martin is one of our favorite ivy skippers. vocally combative, he specializes in hurling three quarter court length insults at unfriendly officials. these bombardments are usually followed by sincere tete a tetes with the target of the assaults during which coach martin endeavors to clarify respectful admiration for the acumen of the ref and a sympathetic understanding of the profound challenges of officiating. this double technique was on display at levien saturday, where the lions dominated martin’s boys for the last ten minutes of the first half to build a twenty four point lead with three and a half minutes remaining. martin was apoplectic at the situation and made the quality of his displeasure apparent. the effort promptly bore fruit for from that lowest point, the bruins rallied. they tightened their defense and and played without fouling for the first eight and a half minutes of the second half while the lions quickly got themselves into a penalty situation. jeff coby in particular caught the zebras attention and for the second straight night left the game with five personals. conor voss similarly followed coby to the bench. brown managed to battle back twice within three. both times they pulled that close, though, the lions answered with buckets from lukas meisner to stall the comeback and our heroes escaped with an 83 – 78 win. as the night before, the bench was crucial on offense where jake killingworth scored 14, lukas meisner added 11 and quinton adlesh tossed in another 10. they’ll have to contribute next go round with the bruins as we expect another brawl up in providence three and a half weeks hence.
so for the second straight weekend the lions played very strong first halves and then staggered to the finish lines. to go 3 – 1 out of those performances has them comfortably but not decisively poised for the ivy league tournament. a 4 – 4 conclusion to the regular season should be enough to get them qualified, but that depends on the crew dropping a hapless penn squad twice, whipping dartmouth up in hanover and grabbing a second win against harvard or brown on the road. failing in any of those situations makes a win over yale or princeton necessary if they are to control their own fate. mike martin’s crew, on the other hand, probably has to go 6 – 2 over the same period if brown is to catch the lions or harvard, and most of their games are on the road, too. meanwhile, allgame wishes we could feel a bit giddier about the run to a berth in philadelphia come march 11. a win over penn this friday will be a start, but the lions haven’t hit the road in some time and they can’t be complacent about the contest against steve donahue’s hitherto winless quakers. the home loss to an inferior cornell crew should be lesson enough that no league game is a gimme.
d up and peace out,
paulie b