NEW YORK - Columbia had almost half a dozen players knocked out with the flu, and was not able to overcome a short bench.

Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa had 21 points and Cameron Shockley-Okeke added 20 points in a 81-66 setback against Penn. Michael Moshkovitz stuffed the stat sheet with 13 rebounds, six points, five assists, two blocks and two steals for the Quakers.

"We have to be more disciplined in a bunch of things," head coach Jim Engles said. "We got down and then we came back and I thought we showed good fight. Geronimo and Cam played really well. I thought Luke (Bolster) played well. We just have to get contributions from more than two or three guys. The other guys played hard, but we just have to make sure everyone is contributing and picking everybody up, especially defensively."

Penn (9-12, 6-2) led by as many as 15 points in the first half, before Columbia (4-15, 1-6) went on a 12-4 run capped off by a Shockley-Okeke 3-pointer to make it 23-16 with 7:02 to go in the first half. Shockley-Okeke hit another 3-pointer to make it 28-27 with 2:10 to go, before Penn went into the break with a 35-27 lead.

"I was able to get two 3-pointers which kind of helped us get back in the swing of things come halftime," Shockley-Okeke said.

Unfortunately, it's the closest the Lions would get. While Columbia shot 34.7 percent beyond the arc, they only shot 37.5 percent overall.

"We shot the ball well from three, but we just didn't score inside the lane," Engles said. "You've got to have both."

Columbia participated in the "This Game is No Secret" initiative this weekend to honor the legacy of Hall of Fame Coach John McLendon. The Lions wore special t-shirts during warmups as part of the nationwide campaign in reference to the 1944 "secret game" between North Carolina Central, a Historically Black College and University, and Duke. Something illegal at the time in the segregated south, where Duke didn't allow Black students to attend its university in Durham, NC until 1963.

"It means a lot," Shockley-Okeke said. "It's Black History Month and we just want to make sure that awareness is something that everyone is a part of, everyone is aware of and we are a part of that same movement as well."

Effective February 7, 2022, Columbia University has announced there will be no capacity restrictions on social gatherings and welcome back all spectators who meet the University-established COVID-19 spectator protocols to all home athletic events. For complete venue policies, visit here.

Columbia returns to Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium this Saturday, February 5 when it faces off against Princeton. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. on SNY and ESPN+. 

"We'll break down the game with our guys tomorrow and watch a little bit and learn from it and then we'll just watch Princeton and walk through our their stuff," Engles said. "Back-to-backs are tough because you want to learn from what you just saw, but you also need to move ahead and stay in the moment."

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

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, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be 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.