NEW YORK - Columbia had an early lead, but fell its home opener on on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium to UMass Lowell 89-62. First-year Zine Eddine Bedri built on hist strong debut at Rutgers, leading the team with 17 points and eight rebounds. It was his first double-digit scoring output as a Lion.

"These first two games, we haven't seen the results we want, but these guys are starting to understand we have to build more chemistry," head coach Jim Engles said. "I think at times we've shown that we can play very well. There are segments of the game that we have to control, and some times we show it, and other times we don't, so we just have to stick with it."

Columbia (0-2)  jumped out to 13-4 early, before the Riverhawks (2-0) tied things at 17 at midway through the first half. UMass-Lowell then took the lead, building on it to go up 36-24 on the Lions at halftime.

In the second half, Engles was pleased with the pace the Lions played on offense. However, the Riverhawks shot 63.6 percent from the floor in the second half and pulled away for the win.

"We scored 13 points pretty quickly and were defending at a high level, but then we gave up some offensive rebounds, and little things started to break," said Engles. "Once we stopped making shots, that put pressure on the defense. In the second half, we were competing better on offense."

Liam Murphy added eight points and three rebounds for Columbia. Avery Brown also had seven points, two assists and two steals.

Columbia will be at Sacred Heart University (1-1) on Sunday at 1 p.m. The game can also be viewed on NEC Front Row. Sacred Heart fell to Rutgers 99-50 on Thursday night.