Nov. 18, 2005
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Just call them the comeback kids. Three Columbia players, Justin Armstrong, John Baumann and Kashif Sweet, who missed most of last season due to injury, came back in fine fashion leading the Lions to a 64-61 victory over New Hampshire in game two of the Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic in Levien Gymnasium.
The Lions advance to the championship game for the second straight year, where they will meet Troy, who defeated Quinnipiac 94-83 in overtime. It was the season-opener for all teams in the tournament.
New Hampshire jumped out to 11-0 lead, with Columbia's first basket coming at 12:05 in the first half. A jumper by Jermaine Anderson made it 15-2 Wildcats, but Sweet (Austin, Texas) hit a tough jumper with 10:01 on the clock to ignite a 16-2 run by the Lions to knot up the game at 18-18, with four minutes remaining.
Ben Nwachukwu (Enugu, Nigeria) hit a layup and Baumann (Westport,Conn.) added a three-pointer to give the Lions a four-point lead, 23-19, with just under three to go in the half, but Jamaal Caterina scored four consecutive points to tie the game for the second time in three minutes.
Baumann dunked in an offensive rebound to put the Lions up two, but with two seconds on the clock, Anderson hit a rainbow three to give New Hampshire the one-point lead at the break.
Baumann led all scorers at the half with 11 points.
Brett Loscalzo (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Sweet hit consecutive baskets, but the game was tied 29-29 in the opening minutes of the second period. Trailing by three off a three-pointer by Chris Vetrano, Armstrong (San Diego, Calif.) hit a jumper and got a steal which led to a Baumann basket to give the Lions the Lead, 33-32 with 15:48 remaining to play.
 Armstrong scored a career-high 17 points vs. New Hampshire.  |
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Four points by Armstrong, two by Sweet and two threes by senior captain Dalen Cuff (Palm Harbor, Fla.), both assisted by Sweet, put the Lions up eight with eight minutes remaining to play.
The Lions led by as many as 12, with senior Dragutin Kravic (Zrenjanin, Serbia) adding a big trey, with less than six minutes on the clock.
New Hampshire stormed back with a 7-0 run to make it 55-52 with 2:54 remaining. Armstrong and Baumann connected down the stretch with free throws and a layup to ice the game for the Lions.
Baumann and Armstrong led all scorers with 17 points each. Baumann led all rebounders with nine. Sweet totaled 10 points with five assists, one block and one steal in 24 minutes of action. It was his first double-digit effort of his career.
The Lions shot 48 percent in the second half to shoot 45.1 percent for the game to New Hampshire's 42.6 percent.
