PHILADELPHIA — The Columbia men's basketball team picked up its first Ivy League win of the season after topping Penn, 73-69, Saturday night. The victory snapped a 23-game road losing streak and was the Lions' (4-10, 1-1) conference win away from home since an 83-75 triumph at Yale on March 2, 2019.
 
Ike Nweke led the way again with 21 points, going 9-of-15 from the floor, and pulled down a career-high 15 rebounds. Patrick Harding also had a personal best with 21 rebounds – the most for a Columbia player since Foley Jones against CCNY had 25 in 1971 and the fourth highest single-game total in program history. Nweke and Harding's combined 36 boards was more than the Quakers (5-11, 2-1) had combined in the contest (31).
 
For the second straight game, Columbia used a strong start to grab an early lead. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa knocked down a triple to give the Lions an early 8-3 lead and Liam Murphy extended the margin to 10 with a 3-pointer of his own at the 15:01 mark.
 
A 6-0 spurt by Penn made it 22-20 and closed within one with 6:15 left before the break before Cameron Shockley-Okeke provided a boost off the bench. The junior scored seven of his career-high 19 points over the final five minutes of the half to help the Lions take a 41-36 lead into the locker room.
 
History seemed to be repeating itself again after Columbia could not put away Princeton on Friday. Penn's Max Martz' 3-pointer tied the game, 44-44, just over three minutes into the second half. The teams traded buckets for nearly three minutes until Murphy connected on a turnaround jumper in the lane to start a 6-0 spurt.
 
The lead ballooned back to 63-52 on a nice drive from Shockley-Okeke with 7:28 to go. However, Columbia could not quite put the game away until the closing moments due to turnovers and missed free throws despite playing tough defense on the Quakers.
 
Clark Slajchert made it a one possession game at 67-64 with 31 seconds left and after a pair of makes by the Lions, Jordan Dingle completed an old-fashioned 3-point play on the next possession. Columbia knocked down two more from the line, but Penn stayed alive with another triple with 3.8 seconds to play. The Lions successfully inbounded the ball and Murphy iced the game from the charity stripe.
 
Dingle, who came into the night leading the Ivy League in scoring at 20.0 points per game, was limited to just nine. Martz and George Smith each had 14 to lead the Quakers.
 
The Lions return to Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium on Saturday, January 15 when they take on Harvard for a 2 p.m. contest. Due to the substantial increase in the number of COVID-19 cases being reported in New York City, New York State, and the Columbia University campus community, Columbia University is implementing a temporary no-spectator attendance policy for its home athletics events through January 18. More information can be found here. Fans can watch the game live on ESPN+.
 
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