Columbia killed its Ivy League ambitions with back-to-back losses at Brown and Yale last weekend, with the latter marking the first time the Lions had looked overmatched since conference play began. But it still couldn't prepare anyone at Levien Gymnasium for the putrid performance put forth Friday night, as Columbia got mauled by Princeton, 65-40.
Easily marking the team's lowest point total of the season, the Lions (10-13, 2-7) shot 34 percent from the field and 3-of-17 on 3-pointers, suffering their third straight loss and seventh in the past eight games. Short of anyone on Columbia's campus of coming up with a mind-blowing mathematical formula, it also ended the team's faintest hopes for its first championship since 1968.
"I just think we hung our heads and showed our youth a little bit," Columbia coach Kyle Smith said. "They outcompeted us. We didn't compete. You don't do the first part, nothing else matters. We got to do some soul-searching and quickly."
Returning home for the first time since beating first-place Harvard 12 days before, Columbia's top-scorer and assists-leader, Brian Barbour, was limited to nine minutes because of flu-like symptoms, after receiving five IVs on Thursday. The Lions looked lost on offense without the senior, only getting meaningful offensive contributions from guard Maodo Lo, who finished with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting. No other teammate finished with more than six.
Smith said it looked like the team was out of sorts because of Barbour's quasi-presence, as if they were trying to comeback before the game even began.
"I just think a little bit of our heart and soul is not right as far as Brian," Smith said. "He wasn't the same. He means so much to us leadership-wise and his competitive spirit. There's always an adjustment if a guy's down like that. He's physically not himself. Starting there, you feel like you're starting in a hole."
The Lions actually started on top, with a Lo 3-pointer, but the Tigers (13-9, 6-2) ended any idea of an upset after ending the first half on a 15-3 run, leading 36-20 at the break. After beating the Lions by six in a meeting earlier this month, Princeton controlled the game through physicality, dominating the glass, while getting to the line with ease.
The Tigers were confident, the Lions confused, unsure how to handle the duo of Ian Hummer and Denton Koon, who combined for 40 points on 16-of-24 shooting.
"We had to make stops twice just to get a stop," Smith said. "Those wear on you. I thought at home we'd be better on the boards there. We're not 100 percent where we need to be. That's obvious."
Princeton turned the final 17 minutes into garbage time, leading by as much as 31 and never less than 19. They ended the night shooting 56.1 percent from the floor.
Princeton plays at Cornell tonight, and Harvard visits Yale. Should the Tigers win, it will give them an opportunity at home next Friday to take at least a share of first-place in the conference.
howard.kussoy@nypost.com
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