huz-freakin’-zah

columbia’s mens basketball team won its ivy league season opener in a rousing 104 – 99 back and forth battle against the cornell big red at newman arena. the game featured 12 ties and marked the first lion win at cornell since 2017 and the first over the ithacans anywhere since 2020. the game featured gutsy performances by both squads’ team leaders (kenny noland for the lions and cooper noard for cornell), indispensable supporting turns (hampton saunders scored 17 for columbia and 15 for the big red’s josh baldwin), ferocious tangles under the backboards and end to end defense by both teams. columbia ran out to a quick 7 – 0 lead but the game was tied at 56 come half time on a late saunders three pointer. (allgame has to point out that this was the icing on saunder’s impeccable offensive first half:five for five from the field including 3 – 3 from the perimeter and three for three from the charity stripe. those numbers meant more than a couple of unnecessary fouls). cornell came out of the locker room and started battling evenly under the boards with the taller lion crew and over the first nine minutes of the second half forged a 72 -63 lead. that would prove the home team’s high water mark and the game was tied at 76 when blair thompson drilled a three pointer with 7:27 to play. from there on, columbia established control outscoring the big red 10 -2 over the next minute and half. that run was marked by a break away dunk from thompson and back to back treys from messr noland. down the stretch, despite steady defense from cornell, the lions held their lead. indeed their final eight points came at the foul line as cornell persistently fouled in their attempt to trade points for possession and time. in total, the lions enjoyed a ten point edge at the free throw line, going 28 – 33.

those shooting stats don’t convey the full flavor of the fight. columbia’s coaching staff hoped to maximize its rebounding prowess by leaving cornell’s big men uncovered at the top of the key. the lions’ interior length combined with the big red’s big men’s inefficiency with the three point shot should lead to a significant edge on the score board. cornell’s coach jon jaques believed there was a solution to this conundrum. he would have his front court attack the boards and trust that josh baldwin and ian imegwu could hit enough treys to overcome the lions. turns out that though hovde’s crew persevered, jaques might have had the more acute read on the road to victory. columbia has been one of the nation’s best rebounding squads often topping opponents by 20+ in that category. on monday they edged the big red by 35 -34 on the boards. meanwhile baldwin (4 – 8) and imegwu (5 – 8) accounted for 56% of cornell’s made threes. the last filigree to this hoops pastry should be a review of the turnover situation. in the first half, cornell’s court length harassment of lion ball handlers produced 10 turnovers while the big red coughed the ball up but three times. in the second half, despite kenny noland losing the ball four times, the lions reduced their give aways to 6 while turning their hosts over 9 times. that 3 turnover difference almost accounts for the light blue’s five point victory.

we hope that this happy recap returns allgame to its original purpose, the reporting of the details of a cumb team’s victory or loss. too often over the past few seasons we have resorted to the pathetic “everyone gets a sticker” standard in glossing over yet another lion failure. our tone and tale defaulted to our unquenchable loyalty to the program despite its incompetence. we look forward to another straightforward report of events after this saturday’s match versus the haughty harvards at levien. we expect the joint will be jumpin’.

d up, peace out

paulie b