Columbia Surges Early, Defeats Princeton

Saturday, February 17

New York, N.Y.

7:00 PM

Princeton University

11-14, 3-7

Columbia

7-16, 4-6

Princeton

Columbia

Photo by: Beverly Schaefer

February 17, 2018 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

The first six points of the game went to Columbia, and the Lions never relinquished the lead in an 85-60 win over the Princeton men's basketball team Saturday night in New York.

The loss didn't help the Tigers' Ivy League Tournament hopes, but Princeton is still alive for a berth in the four-team draw. Behind top-two Penn and Harvard, Yale is third at 5-5 in the league. Brown, Cornell and Columbia are all tied for fourth at 4-6, and Princeton is a game back of that group at 3-7. Four games are left for each team, with Princeton hosting Harvard and Dartmouth next weekend before going to Brown and Yale the following weekend.

"We've been fortunate with some of the breaks with the league and we're right there," Mitch Henderson, the Franklin C. Cappon-Edward G. Green '40 head coach of Princeton basketball, said. "We have an opportunity. We had a really nice, spirited discussion led by our seniors and juniors just now. Now hopefully we can see something from that."

Columbia's lead stood at 27 with just more than four minutes gone in the second half, and after that, the Lions never let Princeton closer than 18 points and peaked the lead at 28 late in the game. Hot shooting led the way for Columbia, which shot 50.8 percent from the field and drained 14 of 24 from 3. The Lions held Princeton without a 3-pointer in the first half, and though Princeton hit seven of them after the break, the deficit proved too large. Columbia also helped its cause with a 45-31 advantage on the boards.

"In this league, you've got to take away the other team's strengths, and we've not been able to do that," Henderson said. "Last night (at Cornell), with transition and them making threes, and tonight with threes, we're down 12-2 (early). We're going back home. Hopefully we can get on track and play good Princeton basketball."

Postgame Notes

• Princeton now leads the all-time series with Columbia 153-86, but the Lions broke an eight-game losing skid to Princeton in New York. Columbia's last home win over Princeton was in 2009.

• Amir Bell achieved his 300th career assist during the game, now with 301. He stands eighth on Princeton's all-time list.

• Junior Devin Cannady broke a tie with former teammate Spencer Weisz '17 and now stands alone in fifth place on Princeton's all-time 3-pointer list. His 3-pointer Saturday night was his 72nd of the season, the eighth-most made in program history. Cannady, Sean Jackson '92 and Douglas Davis '12 are the only players in program history with two seasons of 70-plus 3-pointers.

• Princeton's four turnovers matched a season low set last weekend at Dartmouth.