Several of Columbia’s teams aren’t competing right now, but the basketball and wrestling teams have kept going over the break.

Men’s Basketball: The men’s basketball has had a tough winter break, losing 4 of 5 games during the break. In the Aeropastale Holiday Festival, the team lost to ACC power Virginia Tech 64-52 before beating Marist 63-58. A week later, the Lions let Sacred Heart rally from a double-digit deficit, and lost 84-79 in overtime. Finally, a post New Year’s road trip has seen the team take two losses, 73-59 to Lehigh on the 2nd and 62-50 last night at American University. Among Ivy League teams, Columbia’s 4-9 non-conference record is actually 4th – only Cornell and Harvard have winning records right now.

The team’s woes can at least be partly blamed on playing without leading scorer Patrick Foley (13.4 ppg) and leading rebounder Asenso Ampim (6.7 rpg), both of whom have been injured since before break. A bright spot, though, has been the play of first-year guard Noruwa Agho, who is averaging 24 minutes and 8 points now, and was named Ivy League Rookie of the Week for scoring 21 against Sacred Heart. The Lions play one final non-conference game against NJIT on Friday, before beginning their Ivy League play on the 17th at home to title favorites Cornell.

Women’s Basketball: Like their male counterparts, the women’s basketball team have only managed one win so far over break. Losses at home to NC State (78-58) and at Cal State Northridge (74-64) were followed by a 65-63 win at Cal State Fullerton and an 87-66 loss to American on Sunday night. Their overall 5-7 record, though, is tied for 2nd best among Ivy League schools – only Harvard has a winning non-conference record.

Star Judie Lomax, though, has continued her stellar play, picking up her second and third Ivy League Player of the Week awards over break. Lomax has averaged a double-double for the season (13.9 points and 13.4 rebounds per game) and shot 55% from the field. Over break, her numbers have been even better: just under 19 points and 14 rebounds per game, including a monster 22 points and 18 rebounds against Cal State Northridge. The women team’s plays at Longwood University in Virginia tomorrow and at home against Northern Colorado on Sunday, before opening league play against Cornell on the 17th.

Wrestling: The wrestling team dropped two matches on January 4th, 21-18 to Wyoming and 24-10 to Cal State Fullerton. The team is staying in California for its other set of matches: three (against UC Davis, Stanford, and Cal State Bakersfield) on the 10th. They then wrestle in the New York State Championships on the 16th and 17th. Sophomore Ryan Flores is now ranked 13th in the heavyweight category of the InterMat/NWCA/NWMA individual rankings.

Other Sports: The Ivy League defending champion fencing team begins its season on the 16th, at the North American Cup in Kentucky, the swimming and diving team restarts against Bucknell at home on the 18th, and the indoor track team has a tri-meet against Yale and Dartmouth on the 18th as well.

- JCD