Men's Basketball Concludes Road Swing at Harvard, Dartmouth
2/16/2017 8:08:00 AM | Men's Basketball
The Columbia Alumni Association/Boston Regional Club/Athletics Event are hosting a pregame reception from 5-6:45 p.m. for all Columbia affiliates. It will take place at John Havard's Brewery and Ale House, less than a 15 minute walk to Lavietes Pavilion. $40 ticket gets you into reception and the game! (Youth ticket options available). For more information or to RSVP click here.
COLUMBIA'S STATUS
• The Lions dropped a pair of games on the road at Penn and Princeton this weekend. Columbia struggled in the first half of each game before surging in the second.
• The Lions were outrebounded 30-10 and trailed by nine at the half against the Quakers before rallying and taking a four-point lead with 9:02 to play. However, Penn answered with a 7-0 run and hit its final 10 free throws to ice the game.
• The next night, Columbia found themselves down 20 with 18 minutes left in regulation, chipped away and had a shot to tie or win the game in the closing moments, but a long 3-point try was off the mark.
ABOUT HARVARD
• The Crimson have rattled off four consecutive wins after falling to Columbia last month. Last weekend, Havard dispatched Brown, 87-74, and Yale, 75-67, on the road.
• First-year Bryce Aiken, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Week, is averaging a team-best 14.3 points per game.
• Senior Siyani Chambers, who was tabbed as Ivy League Co-Player of the Week on Feb. 13, leads the conference in assists, dishing out 5.9 per contest.
• Zena Esomwan bolsters the middle of Harvard's defense and posts 6.3 boards and 1.9 blocks per game.
SERIES HISTORY - HARVARD
Columbia leads the all-time series with Harvard, 97-80. The Lions have won the last three meetings, including a 65-62 thriller in Levien Gym on Jan. 28.
ABOUT DARTMOUTH
• The Big Green have earned splits the last two weekends. Dartmouth returns home after falling at Yale, 73-64, and topping Brown, 77-74, on the road.
• Evan Boudreaux is averaging nearly a double-double, posting 16.7 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.
• Guillen Smith and Miles Wright also average double-figures in points at 11.9 and 10.7 PPG, respectively.
SERIES HISTORY - DARTMOUTH
Columbia is also riding a three-game winning streak against Dartmouth and are 112-99 against the Big Green in the series that dates to 1905-06. The Lions posted a 66-54 victory over Dartmouth at home on Jan. 27.
AVENUE “Q”
Sophomore Quinton Adlesh has emerged as one of the top sixth men in the Ivy League, providing a spark on both ends of the floor. In conference games, Adlesh leads the Ancient Eight in 3-point field goal percentage (.583) and steals (2.1). In the last six games, he has drilled 12-of-17 (.706) tries from downtown and is averaging 2.3 steals.
LUKE SKYWALKER
Forward Luke Petrasek is approaching the 1,000 point milestone (957 career points heading into this weekend). The senior is having a strong final campaign, averaging a team-best 15.5 points and 6.2 rebounds, which puts him fourth and seventh, respectively, in the Ivy League in those categories. The East Northport, New York, native is shooting 92.4 percent (61-of-66) from the foul line, which is fifth in the NCAA and would be a Columbia single-season record if that holds. He is the team's leading returning scorer after posting 10.2 points on 44.2-percent shooting from downtown in 2015-16.
#PATHTOTHEPALESTRA
The Ivy League has added men's and women's basketball tournaments to its slate of conference championships beginning in March 2017. The top four teams in men's and women's basketball will vie for the conference's automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Basketball Championships. The regular season champion will receive an automatic bid to the postseason NIT. The 2017 Ivy League Men's and Women's Basketball Tournaments will both be held over the same two competition days, March 11 and 12, at The Palestra in Philadelphia. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For more information, visit IvyMadness.com.
