Columbia Grabs Big Win Over Princeton Down the Final Stretch of Ivy League Play

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Columbia
Photo By: Ben Goldsmith

Columbia Men’s Basketball squared off against Ivy League archrival Princeton Saturday night at Levien Gym. The Lions got off to an impressive 25-7 start with 11:17 remaining in the first half. 

Columbia dominated from the jump to the final buzzer lifting them to an 85-60 win over the Tigers. The Lions (7-16, 4-6) were led by senior guard Kyle Castlin who produced a career-high of 22 points coming off the bench.

The Lions win over Princeton marked their first win in Levien Gym over the Tigers since March 6, 2009.

Junior guard Quinton Adlesh led the early charge with his hot outside shooting. At the 16:03 mark in the first half, Adlesh knocked down back-to-back three-point shots. Five minutes into the game Adlesh already had eight points for the Lions.

The Lions played a stifling man-to-man defense in the first half limiting Princeton’s penetration dramatically. 

Columbia held Princeton to 0-of-13 from the three-point line at the half, while the Lions shot 8-of-11 from behind the arc with a 48-25 lead going into the locker room. The Lions also had a 25-14 rebounding advantage going into halftime.

Princeton came out in the beginning of the second half knocking down their first two three-point shots and threw a 1-3-1 zone at the Lions. Castlin did a great job of knocking down shots off of ball reversals going 4-of-5 beyond the arc for the game.

The Tigers extended the 1-3-1 zone in the half-court applying ball pressure immediately when the Lions crossed the half-court line and even trapped on the wings. 

Columbia did a great job of finding the open man when the Tigers tried to switch their defense up. This put the Tigers in a tough spot going back to their man-to-man defense that the Lions got off to a hot start against.

The Tigers made halftime adjustments to get more penetration and got to the free-throw line more often, but it didn’t seem to phase the Lions as they kept a demanding double-digit lead throughout the entire second half. 

With five minutes to go in the game, the Tigers extended their 1-3-1 into a full-court press trying to generate any quick offense to cut the lead to single-digits but were never able to do so.

Castlin had six rebounds to go along with his 22-points. Adlesh added 18 points. Junior forward Lukas Meisner contributed 15 points and 12 rebounds while shooting 3-of-5 from the three-point line. Sophomore point guard Mike Smith added 14 points and five assists with an impressive zero turnovers.

Princeton was led by senior guard Amir Bell with 12 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.

The win brings the Lions to a 4-6 conference record putting them in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Ivy League at the moment. The race for the third and fourth seeds in the Ivy is a narrow race. Cornell and Brown are also 4-6 in conference play and Yale is 5-5. 

The Lions have four conference games remaining with two of those games against Yale and Brown, which would allow them to solidify their chance of making the Ivy League tournament.

Postgame Press Conference

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