Columbia Comes Up Short in Defensive Battle at Harvard, 62-54

Friday, February 18

Cambridge, Mass. / Lavietes Pavilion

7:00 P.M.

Columbia University

4-19, 1-10Ivy

Harvard

12-10, 4-6Ivy

Columbia

Harvard

Photo by: Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin

Columbia Comes Up Short in Defensive Battle at Harvard, 62-54

2/18/2022 9:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights

The Lions dropped a back-and-forth contest to the Crimson Friday night.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Harvard eked out a 62-54 win over the Columbia men's basketball team Saturday night. Baskets were hard to come by for both squads with both the Crimson and Lions shooting under 37-percent from the floor.

Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa led the way with 16 points, going 5-of-7 from deep, and added six rebounds and three steals. Jaden Cooper pitched in 12 points off the bench.

The Lions (4-19, 1-10) were 10-of-20 from 3-point range, but shot just 36.0 percent from the floor. Columbia also committed 24 turnovers, but also scored 19 points off of 18 Harvard miscues.

Noah Kirkwood led the Crimson (12-10, 4-6) with 22 points.

Columbia started out fast, converting on four of its first five tries from deep. Rubio De La Rosa came up with two of those triples, with his second giving the Lions a 12-6 advantage with 15:10 to play in the first period. From there things got sloppy for both teams in a half that saw 22 combined turnovers. However, Harvard strung together baskets and used a 15-3 spurt to jump out to a 29-18 advantage with 6:46 to go before the half.

The Crimson went ahead by as many as 13 in the frame, but Rubio De La Rosa capped the first-half scoring with a step-back 3-pointer from the left wing to make it a nine-point deficit for Columbia at the break.

After a sluggish start offensively for Harvard and the Lions, Columbia trimmed the deficit back down to eight, but the Crimson answered again. Luka Sakota and Kale Catchings hit the next two buckets for Harvard and a Kirkwood layup extended the margin to 51-36 with 8:16 to play.

The Lions did not go down without a fight, chopping the Harvard lead down to seven after a pair of 3-pointers from the corner from Cooper. Cam Shockley-Okeke buried another triple to make it 57-51 with 1:19 on the clock and Columbia then had a chance to make it a one possession game after a turnover. The Lions' pressure forced a 10-second violation, but Columbia misfired from long range and the Crimson hit 3-of-4 free throws on their next two offensive trips to give themselves enough breathing room to secure the win.

The Lions finish up the weekend road trip at Dartmouth on Saturday, February 19 for a 7 p.m. contest. Catch all the action live on ESPN+.

For the latest on the Columbia men's basketball, follow @CULionsMBB on Twitter and Instagram, and the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.