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Columbia vs. UMES
Columbia University Athletics / Josh Wang
60
Yale Yale 10-4,0-1 Ivy League
62
Winner Columbia CU 6-10,1-0 Ivy League
Yale Yale
10-4,0-1 Ivy League
60
Final
62
Columbia CU
6-10,1-0 Ivy League
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Yale Yale 20 40 60
Columbia CU 34 28 62

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Men's Basketball Holds Off Yale for 62-60 Victory to Open Ivy League Play

The Lions built a big lead and held off the Bulldogs down the stretch

NEW YORK - Columbia ended 2022 with a clean slate as Ivy League play tipped off. The Lions will enter 2023 with a 1-0 conference record.

Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa added 15 points, six assists and five rebounds and Avery Brown added 16 points and three assists as Columbia opened up conference play with a 62-60 win over Yale on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium in front of 1,011 fans for a New Year's Eve matinee.

Yale (10-4, 0-1 Ivy) was selected to finish third in the Ancient Eight in the preseason poll after winning the Ivy League Tournament last season. The Bulldogs came into the game averaging nearly 80 points per game. 

"That's teamwork," De La Rosa told Lance Medow on ESPN's postgame interview. "We've been doing this all week – working on defense. We know how good of a team they are. We just played together and we played defense like we practiced."

Columbia's (6-10, 1-0 Ivy) young team was picked last. So much for the preseason rankings.

"These guys play with ultimate confidence," head coach Jim Engles said. "We made some big plays at the end, and that's what we need to do. The more we're situated, the more we're presented with those opportunities, the more you'll see their talent come out."

Brown slammed down a pass from fellow first-year Kenny Noland in transition to dunk with authority and give Columbia the 15-11 lead with the 11:25 mark of the first half on the old-fashioned 3-point play. The Lions would balloon its lead to as many as 16 before taking a 34-20 lead into the break.

Yale was able to cut it to 46-40 midway through the second half on a deep 3-pointer, and cut the lead to 47-44 with 7:03 to go, and 50-48 with 5:27 remaining, before tying it at 53 at the 3:30 mark.

Brown would hit a 3-pointer to break the tie and put Columbia up for good with just over two minutes left. De La Rosa hit a 3-pointer off an in-bounds pass from Brown with just over a minute to play that left him smiling ear-to-ear after the play.

"I was ready for that shot," De La Rosa said. "This morning I was working on that shot coming off screen like that. I was just waiting for that moment, and I just too my opportunity and I did it."

Columbia had nine 3-pointers on the day.

Brown attacked the basket to put Columbia up 61-57 before icing the game at the free throw line. It ended an eight-game losing streak to Yale at Levien Gym, dating back to 2014.

Columbia was 9-of-12 from the charity stripe.

"We've been working on this all week long and we were ready for this," De La Rosa said. "We just had to stick together and finish strong."

Liam Murphy returned from injury to have seven points off the bench, which contributed 21 points overall.

Engles is now 4-2 in Ivy League openers as head coach, while Columbia improves to 32-34. 

"The defense has been really solid all year and I think it's improving," Engles said. "The offense took a step today and was better and now we just have to keep both sides of the ball. It's a good opportunity to learn from a win and we'll get a good week of preparation for next weekend."

Next week, Columbia embarks on a traditional Ivy League back-to-back weekend when it hosts Princeton (Fri., Jan. 6) and Penn (Sat., Jan. 7) on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium. Both games tip at 7 p.m. and tickets can be purchased here. The games will air on ESPN+.

Matt Sugam '23 SPS  has been covering sports in the NY 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 covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia SPS. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Visit his website at www.mattsugam.com
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