Lions dealt heart-wrenching loss against UAlbany, collapse in second half against Sacred Heart

Upper West Side NY

16 December, 2021

3:51 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY TAKASHI WILLIAMS, MILES SCHACHNER, AND MATTHEW KIM • DECEMBER 13 Men's basketball started last week off on a difficult note, losing a tough road matchup against a talented Colgate team. With that 89-61 defeat still in the rearview, the Lions (3-9, 0-0 Ivy) went back upstate to face the State University of New York at Albany (2-7) on Saturday, this time with a key addition: senior forward Ike Nweke. The team captain helped Columbia come back from a 21-point deficit, putting up a game-high 18 points, but the Great Danes ultimately prevailed at crunch time, taking home a 60-59 win. On Monday, the Lions followed up that performance with a loss against Sacred Heart University, allowing the Pioneers to go on a 27-4 run in the second half and clinch a 79-69 victory. Like many other games this season, the Light Blue got off to a slow start in Saturday's contest, and UAlbany jumped out to a quick 12-0 lead. The Lions didn't get on the scoreboard until Nweke, who came off of the bench in his first game since Columbia's season opener, converted a tough layup nearly four minutes into the game. The Lions' offense continued to stagnate, while the Great Danes started to find their groove. Midway through the first half, UAlbany held a 21-point lead. This was the largest the deficit would ever be as the Light Blue rallied back. A pair of triples by sophomore forward Liam Murphy and an acrobatic layup by sophomore guard Zavian McLean highlighted a 28-12 run by the Lions, which cut the Great Danes' lead to only five points going into halftime. Despite both teams scoring far fewer points than they did in the first half, the second period brought even more action. After a back-and-forth during the first 10 minutes, UAlbany's Aaron Reddish punched sophomore forward Josh Odunowo while Odunowo was on the ground fighting for a loose ball. Reddish was given a flagrant 2 foul, disqualifying him for the rest of the game. Engles was proud of how Odunowo and the Lions kept their composure following the physical altercation. "This team has extremely high character. They're really trying, and they're really improving," Engles said. "We talk about all that stuff on the daily, and I think the character of our guys showed up. … I was very happy with the way the guys handled that." The remainder of the game proved to be a slugfest, as both teams combined for only 17 points after the ejection. With the score sitting at 58-54 in favor of the Great Danes over a near four-minute stretch, UAlbany was in the driver's seat to sneak away with the win. However, Nweke knocked down a contested midrange fadeaway followed by a clutch layup to even up the score. With half a minute left in regulation, first-year guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa was fouled by UAlbany's Jamel Horton, sending the Dominican Republic native to the free-throw line. Rubio De La Rosa missed the first but sank the second, giving Columbia a slim 1-point advantage. On the last possession of the game, the Lions' lockdown defense forced the Great Danes to call two timeouts before getting off a shot. With the Great Danes' chances of winning on the line, UAlbany forward De'Vondre Perry made a hard drive to the rim, drawing a foul by Odunowo. Perry calmly knocked down both shots from the charity stripe, helping the Great Danes retake the lead. With just three seconds remaining, Nweke launched a pass down the court to Rubio De La Rosa, who took a highly contested shot as the buzzer sounded. The first-year could not convert, allowing UAlbany to walk away with the 1-point victory. "We just really dug a hole there in the beginning of the game. Once we got our footing, we played well," head coach Jim Engles said. Nweke did not fail to make his presence known in his return to action. On top of his 18 points, the senior also came away with three steals. "We need to get [Nweke] on the court to develop some chemistry with [the other players]," Engles said. "A lot of these kids have never played with him in game settings. It's just getting him some practice time and getting these guys to practice with him, and then you have to readjust some of our lineups." Murphy and junior guard Eddie Turner III also scored in the double digits, with Murphy shooting an efficient 4-7 from beyond the arc. Rubio De La Rosa struggled from the field, scoring only 5 points on 1-7 shooting. In Monday's contest against the Pioneers, a familiar problem plagued the Lions: they couldn't put together two strong halves. After one of the Lions' best 20-minute stretches of the season during the first half, in which the team shot 59 percent from the field, the Pioneers pounced on Columbia, which looked lost for much of the second half. In the first half, Nweke led the way for the Light Blue, draining mid-range jumpers en route to 14 early points, while Odunowo was an energetic complement to Nweke in the frontcourt, adding 9 points on perfect 3-3 shooting. After entering the intermission with a narrow 33-32 lead, the Lions opened the second half firing, as Murphy sank back-to-back treys to boost them to a 41-34 lead. However, Sacred Heart then exploded to go on a 27-4 run, hitting tough shot after tough shot to build a 16-point lead and eventually walk away with the victory. Guard Tyler Thomas, the Northeast Conference's leading scorer, led the Pioneers with 19 points on 9-13 shooting. "On both ends, we were just a bit stagnant, which I think we've been sometimes this year," said Murphy, who led both teams with 20 points, including 6-12 shooting from downtown. "On offense, we moved the ball really well in the first half. I think we got away from some of [that] in the second half." The Lions will come back from final exams to take on the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore on Dec. 28 in a doubleheader with the women's team. The women's game will start at 5 p.m., while the men's game will start at 8 p.m. Viewers can watch both contests at Levien Gymnasium or on ESPN+. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.