Last night, Columbia Men’s Basketball took on the Brown Bears in Levien Gym, keeping a close game but ultimately falling 66-72. Sports Editor Eunice Bae recounts her first college basketball game experience.

Teams: Columbia Lions (6-19, Ivy 1-8) and Brown Bears (13-9, Ivy 6-3)

Having gotten back to campus from work at precisely 6:47 pm, I quickly ran back to my dorm and changed into the first Columbia shirt I could find. Ten minutes later, I was hurrying down the stairs of Dodge with a JJ’s to-go box in one hand (they had amazing chicken tenders!! Chef’s kiss!!) and a vanilla milkshake tie-dyed with M&M’s in the other. It felt somewhat chaotic, even wrong to haul JJ’s into Dodge, but hey– to each their own.

My friend and I rushed into Levien just as the game was beginning. There were some pretty good seats that were empty by the door we entered through, so we decided to sit there until someone kicked us out. Off the bat, there was a cameraman at the edge of the court rolling around in a chair (for the up-close angle shots I guess) AND HE GOT HIT WITH A BALL. Not that it was a direct hit to the head or anything, but he was so focused on what was going on in the camera shot that he was completely off-guard. Kudos to this man for risking his life for television.

During a time-out, a Brown basketball player seemed to be having an issue with a contact lens. He took it out, examined it, and proceeded to pop that baby right back into his eye. #respect

Multiple times, I accidentally cheered when Brown scored instead of Columbia, and I was confused as to why I couldn’t stop automatically letting out a cheer whenever it happened. My friend and I slowly realized that we were sitting in a SEA of Brown parents/fans, and we alone were sporting Pantone 292. I guess my automatic response was feeding off the energy of the enemy– we had to get out of there. Also, one woman pulled up to a Columbia-Brown game in Princeton merch… go figure.

Watching basketball players run around on the court is a surreal experience, especially the further you go up on the bleachers. The court doesn’t look that big, and despite the fact that we know basketball players are usually taller than the average person, they don’t seem that way on the court– some of them even looked kinda short! But turns out even the ones who look short (compared to the rest of the players on the court) are around 5’11” – perspective really is everything.

The Lions were behind for a little bit towards the beginning (14-18 at one point), but by the end of the first half they were up 35-30. For halftime, the dance team came in and performed a routine to a remix of Lizzo, which obviously slapped.

As the second half began (I was now watching from the correct side of the court), the Lions maintained their lead for a bit longer with the score being 43-41 with 14:46 left in the game. At 12:34, the game became tied 47-47. At this point, fans on both sides were getting pretty jittery. With approximately five minutes left and the Lions behind 57-59, junior Tai Gibbs (#33) made a beautiful three-pointer (idk what the athletic equivalent of a chef’s kiss is but insert that here), and the Lions continued to fight. However, the Bears prevailed with a final score of 66-72, which happened to be the same score as the Lions’ loss away at Brown on February 1st.

The Lions take on the Yale Bulldogs (19-6, Ivy 7-2) today at 7 pm in the Levien Gym. You can purchase tickets here.

Levien Gym via Eunice Bae

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