NEW YORK – It felt like Groundhog's Day all over again for Columbia men's basketball as it dropped another tough decision, 65-63, to Brown Saturday evening. Neither team led by more than eight points the entire way and the contest featured four lead changes in the final 4:51 before the Bears escaped with the victory.
 
"We really have to find a way (to win these close games)," head coach Jim Engles said after the game. "We just need to find a way to minimize the damage (on some of our mistakes) and try and prevent them from getting magnified. We got better shots tonight than we did yesterday (against Yale), but if we made better passes we would have had more quality 3-point attempts and some of those go in. We don't need to change much, just sharpen some things up. Obviously, I'm not happy with the results, but I'm encouraged by a lot of what I'm seeing out there."
 
With the Lions (6-16, 1-7) trailing by one, Quinton Adlesh converted on a layup secured a rebound on the defensive end and threw a long outlet pass to a streaking Maka Ellis for a transition bucket to make it 55-52 in favor of Columbia with 3:52 on the clock.
 
Gabe Stefanini kept Columbia up three with a pair of foul shots at the 2:17 mark, but Tamenang Choh – a 59.8 percent free-throw shooter coming into the game – knocked down four straight from the charity stripe to put Brown (15-9, 3-5) back in front, 60-59, with 1:28 to play.
 
The Bears forced a shot clock violation on the Lions' next trip down the floor and milked the clock some more after Columbia deflected the loose ball out of bounds with 32 seconds remaining. Cambridge was fouled quickly and sank a pair from the line before a perfectly executed inbounds play gave Jake Killingsworth an easy layup to make it 62-61 with nine seconds left.
 
Cambridge converted on two more from the charity stripe and Brown opted to foul before letting the Lions get a 3-point shot off with six seconds to go. Stefanini sank both to extend the game and the Bears left the door open, going 1-of-2 from the line on the next possession.
 
Stefanini raced down the floor, pulled up from well beyond the arc and fired off the back of the rim to send Columbia off with its eighth loss of the season decided by one possession.
 
The Lions were led by Stefanini's 16 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Peter Barba drained four 3-pointers on his way to 12 points off the bench.
 
Columbia played stifling defense out of the gates, limiting Brown to 1-of-10 shooting to go in front 12-6 after Ike Nweke spotted up from the elbow and drained a jumper with 12:12 left in the first half. However, the Bears settled in and knocked down five shots in a row to even things up at 19-19 after Desmond Cambridge sank a free throw with 5:09 remaining in the frame.
 
However, 3-pointers from Peter Barba and Killingsworth helped the Lions remain in front and hold a 27-25 edge into the locker room.
 
Brown was held to 3-of-14 (21.4 percent) shooting from downtown, but were 22-of-27 from the line while Columbia went to the line eight times (all attempted by Stefanini – 7-of-8). Choh posted a game-high 22 points, making 12-of-14 from the line.
 
The Lions are back in action Friday, February 22 at Penn. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m. in the Palestra. The contest will be shown live on ESPN+.
 
Tickets for upcoming home games can be purchased by clicking here or calling 888-LIONS-11