NEW YORK — Columbia men's basketball dropped its 2023-24 season finale on Saturday afternoon to Cornell, 98-76, inside Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
The Lions recognized seniors Liam Murphy, Josh Odunowo, and Zavian McLean in a pregame ceremony. McLean led the Lions (13-14, 4-10) with 17 points in his final game as a Lion. Odunowo chipped in eight points. Blair Thompson recorded his 12th double-figure scoring game of the season, adding 15 points.
Following a 15-point performance, Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa concludes his junior campaign 21st on Columbia's all-time scoring list.
Columbia notched 25 assists on Saturday. The Lions' 471 assists in 2023-24 rank second all-time in a single season in program history.
Thompson opened the scoring for the Lions on the opening possession, and Columbia and Cornell (22-6, 11-3) would trade buckets through the first six minutes of the contest. The Lions trailed 13-10 and Thompson drove to the rim again, but this time he took flight and dunked over the Big Red defender providing the highlight of the day.
Cornell responded with a quick 6-0 run on back-to-back threes to take a seven point lead with 12:51 to play in the half. That lead grew as high as 10, but the Lions cut it back down to two on a tough and-one from Odunowo with under a minute to go.
Odunowo missed the free throw which would have trimmed Cornell's lead down to one, and the Big Red capitalized by scoring four unanswered points to close out the half and take a 49-43 lead to the locker room.
Both offenses kept pace with each other through the first 10 minutes of the second half, with the Lions keeping the deficit at single digits. However, a 10-3 Cornell run saw the Big Red take their biggest lead of the game at 16 points with eight minutes left to play.
The media timeout came at a good time for Columbia, as the Lions looked to cool off the Big Red and mount a comeback. Cornell kept its foot on the gas, scoring 12 of the next 14 points to take a 92-66 lead with under five minutes left to play.
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