HANOVER, N.H. — Columbia men's basketball handled Dartmouth on Saturday night with a commanding 72-56 victory at Leede Arena.
Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa finished with 12 points and tied his career-best with 12 rebounds, recording a double-double for the third time of his career. It's the junior guard's first double-double since Feb. 4, 2022 at Princeton and he is the second Lion to record a double-double this season (Zavian McLean on Jan. 4).
"It was a big showing of the resilience and toughness of our team," head coach
Jim Engles said. "It shows the character of our team. Back-to-backs in the Ivy League are very challenging. We did a really good job of following the game plan. I'm really proud of these guys."
Columbia (11-8, 2-4) has now accumulated its most road victories in a season since 2018-19 with three. Kenny Noland dropped a game-high 13 points while Jaden Cooper and Rubio De La Rosa rounded out Columbia's double-figures scoring with 12 apiece. Jake Tavroff was 4-4 from the floor and added nine points. The Lions out-rebounded the Big Green, 44-29.
Columbia's swarming defense held the Big Green's leading scorer Dusan Neskovic to a team-high 10 points. Dartmouth (5-14, 1-5) was 3-15 from three-point range (0-8 in the second half). Columbia posted a 46.7 percent mark shooting overall (27-58).
"I thought we embraced their physicality and played without fouling," Engles said. "It changed the flow of the game so it's a good one for us."
Rubio De La Rosa accounted for 10 of Columbia's first 13 points as the Lions trailed by five at the under-12 timeout in the first half. His hot start included 2-2 from three-point range. Dartmouth made eight of its first 11 shots. Columbia would erase an eight-point deficit later in the half.
The Lions took their first lead of the evening on a Noland three-pointer that made it 25-24. Columbia would push across five more points on the run to expand its lead. The Lions opened up a 41-29 lead with 3:18 until the break and would hold the 12-point margin at half, leading 45-33.
More than half of the Lions' first half points came from off the bench. Columbia also held a steady 19-13 advantage on the boards and shot 60.7 percent (17-28) in the opening half. The Lions finished with 44 bench points to Dartmouth's 27.
The Lions suffered a slow start to the second half, missing their first eight shots but still locking down defensively to hold a 10-point lead at the under-16 timeout. Columbia's first field goal of the second half came six minutes into the frame.
Back-to-back three-pointers from Cooper blew open a 59-41 lead with 9:57 left and forced the Big Green to call for time. Columbia kept its foot on the gas and didn't let Dartmouth back into it, leading by as much as 23 with three minutes to go. The Lions led for the final 31 minutes of Saturday's game.
The victory is the Lions' first road conference win since Jan. 8, 2022 at Penn. Columbia travels to play Brown next Saturday at 12 p.m. from Pizzitola Sports Center.
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