This week was quite a good one for Columbia athletics:images_5_1-250x232 heading into exams and the break, all of the men’s and women’s basketball and swimming/diving teams scored big victories.

The men’s basketball team defeated Wagner, 102-91, Tuesday in a shootout, putting up the program’s most points against a Division I opponent since the 1976-77 season.  Sophomore Noruwa Agho paced the attack with a career-high 30 points, junior Brian Grimes posted 17 to continue his run of strong play, and John Daniels put up his first collegiate double-double, with 12 points and 10 rebounds.  The team followed the track meet victory with a scrappier 69-57 victory over Rhode Island’s Bryant University to move to 5-4 on the year.  Again, Agho led the way, this time with 23, as the team took a controlling lead after the break and stepped on the gas.  The team, currently leading all Division I programs in three-point field goal percentage at 47.1% (!), will travel to play Quinnipiac on the 23rd.Judie Lomax put the women’s team on her shoulders Tuesday, posting a career-high 30 points along with 16 rebounds in a dominating 73-49 victory over Wagner.  The Lions led by five at the half, but used a strong run and serious rebounding skill (they grabbed 49 rebounds to Wagner’s 25) to stretch the lead to blowout territory. The team will host Monmouth at home today.

The men’s and women’s swimming/diving teams also posted strong victories during the week.  The women put a serious hurt on Penn Wednesday, taking their first Ivy League dual meet win by a score of 173-127.  The team capped the day with a 1-2-3 finish in the 100-meter butterfly, ensuring their victory.  The women rest until January 17th, when they’ll take on Bucknell.

The men, meanwhile, had a strong third day at the Bucknell Open, starting the day in fourth place but finishing in a strong second.  Junior Adam Powell set a new pool record in the 50-meter freestyle on the first day, and the team turned in a strong performance in 400-meter freestyle, the last race of the last day, to catapult to second place.  They’ll return to Bucknell, this time for a dual meet, along with the women’s team in mid-January.