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NEW YORK -- Trailing by 11 points at halftime, Columbia nearly erased Lafayette's lead by the 16-minute media timeout in the second half and made big plays down the stretch to capture a 77-67 win at Levien Gymnasium.
Brian Barbour had 21 points, seven assists and five rebounds for the Lions. Meiko Lyles hit a huge three-pointer late in the second half to give the Lions a four-point lead and finished with 17 points on the night.
Both teams were on fire from the field to start the game. After Columbia jumped out to a 4-0 lead, the Leopards made five straight field goals, four of them from three-point range, to tie the game at 14.
A Blaise Staab three-point play gave Columbia a 19-17 lead with 12 minutes left. Lafayette then unleashed a 16-3 run over the next four and a half minutes to grab a 33-22 advantage.
Lafayette led 48-37 at halftime on the strength of nine first-half three-pointers. The Leopards shot 69.2 percent from the floor in the half while Columbia also shot an impressive 63.6 percent in the half.
While Lafayette's shooting cooled in the second half, Columbia's remained strong. Trailing by 11 to start the half, Columbia got a lift from Meiko Lyles.
Lyles converted a conventional three-point play to start the second half then found John Daniels down low for a dunk to quickly cut Lafayette's lead to 48-42.
After a Mark Cisco jumper made it a four-point game, Lyles nailed a three-pointer to bring the Lions within a point with 17 minutes left.
Lafayette still led 53-50 but Lyles connected again from deep to tie the game at 53 apiece with 10:42 remaining. That triple sparked a 10-0 Columbia run over the next three and a half minutes, giving the Lions a 60-53 lead.
The Leopards came back to tie the game at 63 and regained a one-point edge, 67-66, on two free throws by Ryan Willen with 3:36 left to play.
On Columbia's next possession, Mark Cisco grabbed an offensive rebound of a missed three-pointer and found a cutting Daniels for a layup that put the Lions back in front, 68-67.
Lafayette got an open look from three on its next possession but the shot was long and Lyles came down with the key defensive rebound. On the other end, Barbour found Lyles open in the near corner for a three-pointer, Lyles' third of the game. It was a huge shot by the sophomore and gave Columbia a four-point cushion with two minutes to play.
Lyles again came up big, stealing the ball from Lafayette's Rob Delaney. That set up two free throws for Barbour, who made it a six-point game at the 1:31 mark.
Ahead by six, Columbia had its best defensive stand of the game, forcing a desperation three-pointer with the shot clock winding down with under a minute to play. Blaise Staab came up with the defensive board and Barbour's two free throws gave Columbia an eight-point lead.
Alex Rosenberg added nine points for Columbia and fellow rookie Noah Springwater scored eight, all in the first half. Daniels finished with seven points and eight rebounds and Cisco had seven points and five boards. Staab also scored seven points, with four rebounds.
For Lafayette, Willen led the squad with 20 points. Jim Mower had 13 points and Delaney added nine points and six assists.
Columbia is back in action at Levien Gymnasium on Monday, January 2 against Fairleigh Dickinson. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
NOTES:
The Lions have won eight of their last nine games and four straight games at Levien Gym ... Columbia held Lafayette to just 19 second-half points and held Lafayette without a field goal for the final 4:13 of the game ... the Leopards made just 1-of-12 from three-point range in the second half after hitting 9-of-13 in the first half ... Columbia shot 56.8 from the field and 47.1 percent from the three (8-of-17) ... Barbour's seven assists are a season high ... Columbia outrebounded Lafayette 30-22 and 8-4 on the offensive glass ... Columbia had a record of 16-14 during the calendar year of 2011 ... the Lions have won 14 of their last 20 games at home ... several recent Columbia basketball alumni were in attendance at the game, including Brett Loscalzo '08, Patrick Foley '10, Niko Scott '10 and Zack Crimmins '11 ... Scott and Crimmins are teammates in the Spanish professional league.
