Feb. 5 • vs. Penn • 7 p.m. | Feb. 6 • vs. Princeton • 7 p.m.
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The Three Point Plan ticket package is still available.
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THE STORYLINES
COLUMBIA'S STATUS
The Lions are coming off a road split, dropping their first Ivy League contest at Yale before holding off Brown Saturday. Maodo Lo posted 21 points and tied a single-game record with seven steals against the Bulldogs, while Grant Mullins recorded a season-high 25 points in the win over Yale. Columbia ran into a pair of hot-shooting teams with Yale converting at a 61.5 percent rate from the floor on Friday. The next night, the Bears drilled 59.1 percent (13-of-22) of their tries from 3-point range.
PENN'S STATUS
The Quakers knocked off Dartmouth and Harvard at the Palestra to improve to 2-3 in conference play.
Darien Nelson-Henry leads the way, averaging 12.3 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest. Freshman guard Jake Silpe is one of the top distributors in the Ivy League, dishing out 3.4 assists per game.
SERIES HISTORY... PENN
Columbia is 88-139 all-time against Penn, but the teams have split the season series in each of the past three seasons with both squads holding serve at home.
PRINCETON'S STATUS
The Tigers. like Columbia, enter the weekend with just one loss and took down Harvard and Dartmouth in Jadwin Gymnasium last week.
Princeton boasts the top offense in the Ivy League (78.9 PPG) and has four players averaging in double-figures, led by Henry Caruso (16.7 PPG). Caruso shoots 57.2 percent from the floor and is a 52 percent shooter from long range. He also grabs a team-best 6.6 rebounds per game. Spencer Weisz is averaging 10.7 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.6 assists.
SERIES HISTORY... PRINCETON
Columbia and Princeton will meet for the 233rd time, with the Tigers holding a 148-85 advantage. Princeton has won 11 of the last 12 contests, including six in a row at Levien Gymnasium.
ALUMNI WEEKEND
This weekend, Columbia will welcome back a large contingent of former players for its annual Alumni Weekend. At halftime of the Princeton game, Columbia will honor the returning 1,000-point scorers in attendance.
START ME UP
The Lions are off to their best start after 23 games since 1969-70 when they began the season 20-3. The 5-1 Ivy League start is the best for the program since the 1978 campaign.
KLEPTOMANIAC
Maodo Lo tied a Columbia single-game record with seven steals at Yale to move into second place on the all-time list. In his last four games, he is averaging 4.8 swipes. Lo leads the Ivy League, averaging 2.4 steals and ranks 12th in the nation in that category. The Berlin native's 55 takeaways this season already puts him fourth on Columbia's single-season list and is 13 shy of tying Sean Couch's record of 68.
FROM DOWNTOWN
Columbia has been relient on the 3-point shot this season with 47.1 percent of its attempts coming from beyond the arc. The long-ball comrpises 39.2 percent of their total points, which is 10th in the nation, according to KenPom. The Lions' 229 makes are 19th highest in the NCAA. In addition, their 10.0 makes per game put them 12th in that category.
ROAD WARRIORS
The Lions have four Ivy League road wins for the first time since 2000, which is one shy of tying a program record last accomplished in 1993. In addition, Columbia's three-game road winning streak was the longest since 2010-11 when they topped Maine, Lafayette and Cornell and the longest in Ivy League play since 1998 when they knocked off Dartmouth, Harvard, Brown and Yale away from home.
