ITHACA, N.Y. — The Columbia men's basketball team fell to Cornell, 88-75, Wednesday night. The Lions (4-17, 1-8) had four players score in double-figures with Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa and Noah Robledo each registering 15 points apiece.
 
For the Big Red (13-7, 5-4), Dean Noll registered a game-high 23 points, going 11-of-12 from the charity stripe, to go with six rebounds. Keller Boothby's lethal shooting (5-of-8 from beyond the arc – 17 first half points) was a key in Cornell jumping in front early.
 
Columbia tried to match Cornell's up-tempo offense in the first half, but the Big Red drilled 10 triples in the opening stanza to take a 50-39 lead into the locker room. Jordan Jones connected from deep to give Cornell an early double-figure lead less than four minutes in and led by as many as 18 points just after the midway point of the period.
 
The Lions received strong contributions from a trio of first-years. Robbie Stankard scored 10 of his 11 points in the opening stanza and Robledo and Jaden Cooper (nine points) buried some big shots to keep the Lions within striking distance.
 
Robledo started the second half scoring with a dunk off a press break to start a valiant comeback effort. A 12-3 spurt, keyed by seven points by Rubio De La Rosa cut the deficit down to 62-58 with 12:58 remaing, but that was as close as Columbia would come.
 
The Lions are back at home to wrap up their season series with Yale on Saturday, February 12 at 2 p.m. Columbia is happy to welcome fans back to Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium this weekend and tickets can be purchased by visiting gocolumbialions.com/tickets or calling 888-LIONS-11. For venue policies, click here.

Fans can also catch the action live on SNY and ESPN+.
 
For the latest on the Columbia men's basketball, follow @CULionsMBB on Twitter and Instagram, and the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.