NEW YORK - Against a veteran team that includes four grad transfers in the starting lineup, Columbia head coach Jim Engles sees flashes of the future for his young team. First-year Kenny Noland had a game-high 15 points, and classmate Avery Brown added 12 points as the Lions fell to UMBC 73-66 on Tuesday night on Schiller Court and Levien Gymnasium. 

"We played well for a lot more spurts of the game and just had a hard time finishing some possessions," Engles said. "We just gotta keep pushing through. We're going to get there."

UMBC (6-4) took a 45-43 lead at the 15:46 mark, and Columbia could not quite get over the hump. One of Noland's three 3-pointers pulled the Lions within one at the 11:03 mark before Colton Lawrence responded with a trey of his own to halt the rally. The Retrievers maintained at least a two-possession cushion for most of the time remaining.

"We did some very good things for large periods of the game," Engles said. "We just didn't do enough to affect the game at the end."

The Lions and Retrievers combined to hit their first eight shots of the night in an up-tempo start to the contest. Yaw Obeng-Mensah gave UMBC its largest lead of the frame, 16-10, with 14:49 left in the period.

However, Columbia used a 7-2 spurt to close within one, and Noland scored seven straight to give the Lions a 27-22 edge at the 9:00 minute mark. A finish in the lane from Brown extended the margin to eight with 3:51 remaining, but the Retrievers held the Lions scoreless the rest of the half to even things up, 36-36, at the break.

Facing a veteran team, Engles liked what he saw from his squad that featured four highly touted first-year players.

"It's a learning experience for them, but I definitely feel like they are handling it the right way," Engles said."We've had a pretty good stretch of games here and they're understanding the basketball side, but the physical aspect of the game and the mental aspect of the game and how to recover and prepare yourself for the next opponent."

Tuesday night marked the third of a four-game homestand for the Lions, including three games in four days. Columbia (4-8) will be back in action Friday, December 9, at 7 p.m. against FDU. Tickets can be purchased here and the game can be viewed on SNY and 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