Columbia defeats NJIT, 80-65, advances to CIT final

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Maodo Lo picked a great time to reach his season high in scoring.

The senior guard scored 29 points on 11-for-18 shooting and added six assists, three steals, three rebounds and two blocks, lifting the Lions past NJIT, 80-65, at Levien Gym and into a CIT final matchup with UC Irvine that will take place Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Levien. The win marked coach Kyle Smith’s 100th victory in six seasons at Columbia.

A 9-2 Lions run gave Columbia a 55-42 lead with 9:45 remaining that it would not relinquish. Freshman Lukas Meisner added 11 points and 10 rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench for Columbia, which outscored the Highlanders 16-5 at the free throw line and outrebounded them 39-29.

6 thoughts on “Columbia defeats NJIT, 80-65, advances to CIT final”

  1. If Ivy League Sports is correct about Maodo Lo having 578 points this year,, after scoring 29 tonight I believe he has 1745 points for his Columbia career which is 13 below Jim McMillian who is second in Columbia history and 32 behind Buck Jenkins who is first in Columbia history. if he has a great game and has 33 points,he could end up number 1 and with 14 points he could end up number 2. Chet Forte scored 1611 points for Columbia in 3 years- so if one could extrapolate his scoring , he would have been number 1 in scoring by about 400 points.
    Does anyone know why Kyle Castlin and Nate Hickman were on the bench but not dressed for the game?

  3. They have been so smooth and fun to watch in these games, finally reaching their full potential. I am now even more proud of Yale’s 5-2 record against them over three seasons, and two double digit wins this year.

  5. The Lions have played really well during the CIT. Hopefully, the team can take the title tomorrow night.

    It will be sad to see the seniors leave, since they have meant a lot to the program and the league. It will be even worse if it turns out to be Kyle Smith’s last game, since he is rumored to be in the mix for the jobs at Pacific and San Francisco.

  6. Thanks for the correction on Jim Mcmillian. Intuitively as good as Lo is, it didn’t make sense that he would break the scoring record of a future NBA all star, who was a scorer in the pros. I forgot that I wasn’t comparing apples to apples and that McMillian did his scoring in three years.

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