Princeton's Second Half Rally Sinks Columbia in Ivy League Opener

Friday, January 7

Princeton, N.J. / Jadwin Gymnasium

7:00 P.M.

Columbia University

3-10,0-1Ivy League

Princeton

11-3,1-0Ivy League

Columbia

Princeton

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

Princeton's Second Half Rally Sinks Columbia in Ivy League Opener

1/7/2022 9:21:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights Box Score (.pdf)

Senior Ike Nweke scored a career-high 22 points in the defeat.

PRINCETON, N.J. — Princeton erased a 13-point first-half deficit to pick up an 84-69 victory over the Columbia men's basketball team Friday night. The Lions (3-10, 0-1) were led by a career-high 22-point effort by senior Ike Nweke.

Nweke shot 11-of-18 from the floor and added five rebounds in 27 minutes of action. Liam Murphy chipped in 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc and Patrick Harding pulled down a game-high 11 boards.

Columbia jumped out to a 15-4 lead on Cameron Shockley-Okeke's triple on left wing with 15:29 left in the first half. Zavian McLean's 3-point play put Lions up 22-12 at 11:00 mark before Princeton (11-3, 1-0) started to rally. Jaelin Llewellyn was fouled while shooting a trey made it 26-25 at 6:44 mark when Nweke took over.

He scored the six of the next eight points for Columbia to restore a seven-point cushion. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa put the exclamation point on the half with a pull-up 3-pointer with time expiring to make it 45-33 at the break.

A 15-2 run by Princeton out of the gates evened the score just four minutes into the second stanza. Columbia regained the lead on a Nweke put-back on the next possession, but the Tigers would not quit. Max Johns converted from the post to give Princeton its first lead of the game, 55-54, with 12:16 on the clock.

The Tigers rattled off a 19-2 spurt to put the game away and go on for the win.

Tosan Evubuomwan had 22 points, six rebounds and six steals to lead Princeton. Llewellyn added 21 points, converting on 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Ethan Wright posted 17 points and eight boards.

Columbia held the Tigers to a season-low six 3-pointers on the night. However, the Lions committed 18 turnovers, which led to 17 Princeton points.

The Lions will wrap-up the weekend at Penn on Saturday, January 8 for a 6 p.m. tip-off at the Palestra. No spectators will be permitted due in response to the increase in positivity rates of COVID-19 within the City of Philadelphia. Fans can catch all the action live on ESPN+.

For the latest on the Columbia men's basketball, follow @CULionsMBB on Twitter and Instagram, and the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.