NEW YORK - It was a tale of two halves, and the second one did not go well for Columbia.

Caden Bell was 22-of-41 for 224 yards and a touchdown, while Joey Giorgi ran for 43 yards and a touchdown and had 21 receiving yards for Columbia. Unfortunately, the Lions fell to Yale 41-16 on a crisp fall night at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium on Robert K. Kraft Field.

Leading 16-10 early in the game before trailing 24-16 at the break, Columbia was scoreless in the second half.

"It was a kind of a game of two halves," Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football Al Bagnoli said. "First half we played really solid and it wasn't until the end we got into some of the kick game woes. We lost a little momentum, but I thought we were able to move the ball pretty well, and played pretty well on defense. And I'm not really sure what happened in the second half to be honest with you. We had some penalties. We got off schedule offensively which obviously created some problems and we gave up uncharacteristically some explosive plays in the pass game."

After a first half dominated by big plays, both defenses tightened up in the scoreless third quarter.

Yale converted a third and six for a 16-yard touchdown to cap a 10-play, 72-yard drive and give Yale the 31-16 lead early in the fourth quarter. A one-yard touchdown would put things away at 38-16 with 7:09 to play.

Columbia (3-4, 0-4) opened up the scoring with a 27-field goal midway through the first quarter. Yale (5-2, 4-0) quickly answered on their second play of the next drive, an 83-yard pitch, and caught it to make it 7-3.

Columbia retook the lead when Joey Giorgi capped off and scored on a 13-yard touchdown run to cap off a quick five-play, 48-yard drive. After a missed two-point conversion, Yale would answer with a 41-yard field goal to make it 10-9 with 9:27 left in the half.

J.J. Jenkins got a step ahead of his defender and Caden Bell floated a pass that Jenkins hauled in and took the rest of the way for the 64-yard touchdown. It gave Columbia the 16-10 lead midway through the second quarter.

Jenkins finished with a team-high four catches for 78 yards. Bell was making his second straight start after Joe Green suffered a season-ending injury.

"Getting in rhythm with all the guys, getting all the guys behind me. They've been really supportive." Bell said. "I feel like tonight we went out, especially in the first half, made some really big explosive plays and there's a lot of things we can build off of. I know that we're a good offense. I think we showed that in the first half, but it's a four quarter game and we need to come out and play four quarters and be the offense that I know we're capable of the whole game and I think it's a different result."

Yale answered on a 19-yard pitch and catch to make it 17-16 at the 5:32 mark of the second quarter. A special teams miscue led to a one-play touchdown drive for Yale, who took the 24-16 lead into the break.

With three games to play, the coach hopes to see the team take steps forward in November

"I just want to see continued improvement," Bagnoli said. "I see it in some areas. We're playing good teams, and next week we're playing another really good team."

Columbia is back in action next week when they travel up to Harvard. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN+.

POST GAME NOTES
- The 41 points allowed was a season-high for the Lions.
- Scott Valentas finished with a team-high 11 tackles for his third consecutive double-figure performance
- Friday's meeting was the 100th between Columbia and Yale