Quick Thoughts on Three Wins

Columbia, Manhattan and Iona all captured important victories on Friday night. Here are some thoughts from each.

Columbia 53, Princeton 52

Well, a lot of what I wrote prior to this game came true. Except of course for the winner. Thanks to Meiko Lyles’ late three-pointer Columbia defeated Princeton at Jadwin Gymnasium on Friday night. The loss drops the Tigers to 0-4 in the Ivy League and essentially ends any hope of them toppling Harvard. The victory gives Columbia a 3-2 record in league play. Grant Mullins missed a large part of the second half after getting injured, but Lyles stepped up in his place. This was a SLOW game (55 possessions), which is expected when two Princeton offense style teams face off. Despite the pace the defense was also quite good for Columbia. They allowed 0.95 points per possession, which is awesome considering how well PU plays offense. Alex Rosenberg led the Lions with 19 points. CU plays at Penn tomorrow night.

Manhattan 84, Canisius 73

Two of the top teams in the MAAC met in Buffalo on Friday night on ESPNU and the Jaspers got a critical victory thanks to their excellent defense. Manhattan became the first team to hold Canisius under 1 point per possession by the slimmest of margins as the Golden Griffins scored 73 points in 74 possessions. George Beamon scored 27 points (on 22 shots) and looked like a candidate for MAAC Player of the Year playing opposite of Billy Baron – who has a tendency to knock down really long threes. Baron score 22 points, but Canisius only shot 20-50 (40%) on two-point attempts as Ashton Pankey and Rhamel Brown proved to be intimidating forces in the paint. Pankey finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks and Brown had seven rebounds and four blocks. Ironically, the Jaspers helped their local rival Iona take over sole possession of first place with the victory.

Iona 90, Niagara 89

It looked like the Gaels were going to drop this game when they trailed by 12 points with 4:45 remaining after a Joe Thomas layup. The Gaels finished the game on a 14-3 run, including A.J. English’s three with eight seconds remaining to capture the victory. Sean Armand scored 22 points on just 13 shots for the Gaels and David Laury, the MAAC’s reigning Player of the Week, scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds off the bench. Antoine Mason, the nation’s leading scorer, had just 13 points on 18 shots and was 0-6 from three for the Purple Eagles. This victory is huge for Iona, because it pushes the Gaels into sole possession of first place at 11-2 in MAAC play. They’ve got a tough game coming up though at Canisius.