NEW YORK — Four Princeton players scored in double-figures, led by 27 points from Ethan Wright, as the Tigers picked up an 85-63 victory over the Columbia men's basketball team Saturday night. Wright went 7-of-14 from downtown and Princeton (16-5, 6-2) drained 16 3-pointers on the evening to secure the season split over the Lions (4-16, 1-7).
Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa paced Columbia with 15 points and added five rebounds.
Liam Murphy notched his first career double-double with 14 points and 11 boards.
Ike Nweke added 14 points, all coming in the second half.
Similar to the first meeting between the teams, the Lions landed the opening blow, scoring the first eight points of the game until Princeton regrouped. The Tigers answered with the next 12 points to go in front, 12-8, at the 13:11 mark and continued to build with sharpshooting from deep. Princeton finished the half with 10 makes from beyond the arc to take a 16-point lead into the intermission.
Wright continued to torment Columbia in the second half, draining a triple from the left wing to give the Tigers their largest lead of the night, 59-36, with 15:28 remaining in the game.
Jaden Cooper sparked a 10-0 rally with triple of his own and an old-fashioned 3-point play on the following possession to get the Lions back into the game. Columbia then closed within 70-59 after
Patrick Harding chased down an offensive rebound and found
Cameron Shockley-Okeke from deep at the 5:59 mark,
However, Jaelin Llewellyn ended the dream of a comeback with back-to-back buckets to effectively put the game out of reach.
Columbia saw
Robbie Stankard and
Noah Robledo return to the active roster after missing last night's contest due to non-COVID illness, but stuck with an eight-man rotation.
The Lions return to action at Cornell on Wednesday, February 9, at 5 p.m. to make up their originally scheduled contest from January 17. Fans can watch the game live on ESPN+.
For the latest on the Columbia men's basketball, follow
@CULionsMBB on Twitter and Instagram, and the web at
GoColumbiaLions.com.
