Kyle Castlin goes up strong

The men’s basketball team in light blue that showed up in Ithaca today was not the same team that went blow-for-blow with #1 Kentucky. Thankfully, they didn’t have to be against a Cornell squad that showed shades of its abysmal performances last year. Led by first-year Kyle Castlin’s 12 points, the Lions defeated the Big Red, 48-45.

The early story of the game revolved around Maodo Lo. Within the first minute, he notched a defensive foul attempting to stop a lay-up. One minute later, he was called for a questionable charge on his way to the basket. Shackled by foul trouble, Lo stayed off the court for most of the first half. He was on the court at the beginning of the second stanza, but was called for a third foul in the first minute while battling for a loose ball. Lo would finish the game with zero points and five turnovers in his 17 minutes of play. Columbia lost two games earlier this season when Lo was shut down against St. Francis (NY) and Stony Brook. But thankfully, on the other side of the court, Cornell’s leading scorer Shonn Miller was just as impotent. Despite staying out of foul trouble, the Big Red forward was scoreless in the first half and finished the game with eight points.

For the Lions, it was once again the bench to the rescue. 5’8” sophomore guard Kendall Jackson nailed a pair of three-pointers early to get the Lions into rhythm without Lo directing the offense. Senior guard Steve Frankoski was just as good, continuing his powerful streak of shooting threes in rhythm. Also making an appearance from beyond the arc was sophomore forward Jeff Coby, who knocked down two treys, despite three-pointers accounting for about 20% of his career attempts from the field. Handling the drives to the basket was Kyle Castlin, performing double duty in the paint for the fouled-out Lo and the struggling Cory Osetkowski.

But even with other players stepping up, Columbia ran into huge trouble as a team with its ball control. The Lions turned the ball over 23 times throughout the game, and while that didn’t lead to many points for the Big Red (who shot just 25% on the game and 16% in the first half), it was responsible for the Lions’ low score despite a 44% field goal percentage. Columbia looked sloppy in a way they haven’t yet this season. The full court and high ball pressure brought by Cornell stymied the light blue team, as it has all year. Players seemed out of sync in their passes and downright silly at times against an admittedly strong Big Red defense. But the unforced turnovers turned a game that ought to have been a cakewalk into a hot contest. The Big Red’s shooting woes were far greater than could be attributed to just the Lions’ defense.

Columbia led by 10 points at halftime and led by 12 after the first media timeout in the second half, but as Shonn Miller heated up, Columbia’s lead dwindled. They maintained a precarious lead into the final moments of the game. Up by six with under a minute to play, Noah Springwater fouled Cornell’s Robert Hatter during a three-point attempt. He made all three free throws, and Columbia turned the ball over on the next possession, quickly leading to a Cornell basket. With 16 seconds to play, Springwater inbounded the ball to Frankoski, who couldn’t handle it and kicked it out of bounds. Cornell was unable to score on the ensuing position and had to foul Frankoski, who narrowly hit both free throws to bolster the lead back to three, where it would stay for the end of the game.

The Lions cannot play this poorly if they expect to contend in the 14 Game Tournament that is the Ivy League regular season. More than anything else, Cornell’s offensive inability won the game for Columbia. This win puts the Lions to 1-0 on the Ivy slate, tying them with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, who all won games against their travel partners (Dartmouth, Brown, and Penn, respectively). Expect both Columbia and Cornell to come out with a vengeance next Saturday at Levien, as the Big Red tries to protect itself from a nearly insurmountable 0-2 conference record and the Lions attempt to put themselves into contention for the Ivy Crown.

Freshmen playing hard via Columbia University Athletics/Mike McLaughlin