Coming off of a 50-point first-half and an impressive 81-61 win against St. Francis (NY), Columbia needed to accept that not everything that worked against the Terriers would work against the Seawolves. It was a good thing that last night was the Alex Rosenberg and Maodo Lo show at Levien.
Stony Brook was led by a 20-point effort from their big man, Jameel Warney, but it wasn’t enough to overcome two heroic efforts from Alex Rosenberg and Maodo Lo, who both posted career-highs – 24 pts and 29 pts, respectively.
In the first-half, Rosenberg paced the Lions with 16 of the team’s 28 first-half points on a barrage of back door cuts, dive cuts down the lane, and a pair of three-pointers. But despite Rosenberg’s dominance, Columbia hung on to just a one-point lead at the half, 28-27.
In the second-half, as the pace picked up and both teams traded buckets, it was clear that Stony Brook could not contain Maodo Lo. Dropping 21 of his 29 points in the second stanza, Lo silenced his critics who questioned his play-making abilities. He was getting to the rim, hitting off-balanced threes late in possessions, and proving that he can lead a team as well as anyone in the Ivy League.
The true turning point came just before the under-eight media timeout. After one of Columbia’s 12 offensive rebounds, Grant Mullins, who was scoreless at the time, nailed a momentous three that gave the Lions a little bit of breathing room, 54-50. Then came the final blow. After shedding his defender, Maodo Lo finished off the Seawolves with a graceful layup that expanded the Lions’ lead back to 62-58 with three minutes to go. After free-throws, and an alley-oop jam on the final inbounds pass, the final score was 68-63.
Columbia improves to 10-6 with the win, and has a final tuneup against D-3 Central Pennsylvania before entering Ivy League play against the Big Red.
- Stony Brook entered the night 40th in 3-PT FG% against, though that didn’t show as the Lions shot lights out again from deep, nailing 12-30 from beyond the arc (40%) and actually lowering their season average.
- The Lions are now 7-1 at home, and also 7-1 when one of the big-three (Mullins, Lo, Rosenberg) scores over 20 points – Manhattan was the one loss.
- Rosenberg, Mullins and Lo combined for 61 of the Lions’ 68 points.
- Maodo Lo (64.1%) and Alex Rosenberg (63.8%) are #1 and #2 in True Shooting Percentage in the Ivy League.
- Rosenberg has been hotter than Tabasco sauce over his last three games, going over 20 points in all three – his first three starts of the season. Coincidence? I think not.
- Columbia has reached a program-high Pomeroy ranking of 96th out of the nation’s 351 Division I teams.
Some of us were kind of hoping that Columbia’s “statement victory” would come in Cambridge.
This was a pretty strong statement– it has resulted in the highest Pomeroy ranking for Columbia in a decade. A win in Allston would be a straight up proclamation!
Also, in the middle of researching recent Columbia teams I stumbled upon the 04-05 team that started 12-5…and proceeded to lose their last 10 games to finish 3-11 in league, 12-15 overall. Does anyone remember that team? What happened?
Here is the latest Ivy League Players of the Week: http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/sports/mbkb/2013-14/releases/Mens_Basketball_Weekly_Release_-_Week_11
While the Penn-centric side of me is glad to see Fran Dougherty honored as POW, I really cannot see how Maodo Lo was not selected. Even if anyone wants to discount the Saturday game against Central Penn, his 29 point game against Stony Brook was phenomenal. I guess more importance was placed on a conference game, in the end.
I have a funny feeling that this kind of slight is going to make a strong Lions team more determined to break into the top tier of the Ivies.