Princeton women’s basketball lost its first Ivy game in 43 contests dating back 1,423 days Saturday afternoon.
And it wasn’t even the biggest Ivy hoops upset of the day.
That accomplishment belonged to Columbia men’s basketball, which shrugged off its last-place projection in the Ivy preseason media poll to topple league rankings leader Yale at Levien Gym, 62-60.
A three-pointer from first-year guard Avery Brown severed a 53-53 tie in Columbia’s favor with just over two minutes remaining, backed up by a triple from sophomore guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa soon afterward that helped clinch the win for the Lions.
De La Rosa stepped up against the Ivy League’s best defense, contributing 15 points on 4-for-9 field-goal shooting, six assists and zero turnovers
The win for Columbia (6-10, 1-0 Ivy) marked its first over Yale (10-4, 0-1) at Levien Gym since 2015.
Columbia might have benefited from a shooting drought from the visitors, who went a dreadful 4-for-19 (21.1%) from beyond the arc.
But the Lions’ defense encouraged that dry spell, and Columbia hit upon its formula for success given the team’s offensive shortcomings: stingy defense, few turnovers and efficient shooting from De La Rosa and Brown. That pair combined for 31 points powered by 5-for-9 shooting from three-point range. Brown is emerging as a formidable scoring threat, getting into double figures in four of the last five games.
The win is a great way for Columbia to enter 2023 after two straight 1-13 Ivy finishes.
Columbia dropped two games in overtime earlier this month, and the Light Blue have a long history of coming up short in tight Ivy contests under coach Jim Engles. Columbia gets to stay home as it seeks to stack conference wins next weekend against Princeton and Penn. Those are winnable games, even for KenPom No. 337 Columbia, if the Lions can play strong perimeter defense and get continued timely production out of De La Rosa and Brown.
Yale, meanwhile, exits the Columbia game with a pedestrian 31.9% three-point shooting clip on the season and one of the worst rates of free-throw attempts per field-goal attempt in Division I. The Bulldogs must shoot the ball better or at least get to the foul line more often if they are to live up to their Ivy-best No. 36 NET and No. 84 KenPom rankings.