NEW YORK - Four players scored in double figures as Columbia men's basketball jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as the Lions coasted to a 96-44 win over SUNY-Maritime.
Blair Thomspon finished with 14 points on 3-of-7 from beyond the arc, while Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa finished with 12 points, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. Lukas Yurasits added 13 points and six rebounds.
"It was a great opportunity to compete," head coach Jim Engles said. "I thought the guys competed really well, and we executed at a high level. I'm really proud of the execution, especially the first group. And it was good for everybody to get out there and develop some confidence."
Columbia took a 7-4 lead at 17:24 on Thompson's 3-pointer assisted by Avery Brown, and SUNY-Maritime didn't break double digits until hitting its first 3-pointer midway through the first half. The Lions were 64% from the field, including 9-of-18 from beyond the arc. At one stretch, De La Rosa hit three in a row.
Columbia (2-4) led SUNY-Maritime (2-3) by as many as 38 in the first half before taking a commanding 53-16 advantage at the break of the Sunday matinee on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
"I thought we did a good job defensively, and we were very good from an execution standpoint offensively," Engles noted. "So it's just good that we can see that we can do this stuff with the experience we're gaining."
Avery Brown and Jaden Cooper each dished out four assists. Jake Tavroff added seven points, five rebounds and three blocks. Asa Shannon had a couple of highlight-reel dunks in the second half, the first on a fast break, the second an alley-oop, finishing with 10 points.
Columbia led by as many as 51 when it was 92-41.
Columbia travels upstate to take on Binghamton on Thanksgiving eve. The game is at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and can be viewed on ESPN+.
Matt Sugam '23 SPS has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press and contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He's been covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam or visit his website at www.mattsugam.com
