With six days to ponder their loss at Harvard's Lavietes Pavilion last week, the Princeton men's basketball team showed its desire to perform better Friday night at Columbia, outdoing the Lions by just about every measure.
In a 65-40 win, Princeton outshot Columbia 56.1 percent to 34 percent, outrebounded the Lions 32-23, and kept themselves to 11 turnovers while benefitting from 12 giveaways for the home team.
Princeton improved to 13-9 overall and 6-2 in the Ivy League while Columbia fell to 10-13 overall and 2-7 in the Ivy. Princeton has won 10 of its last 13 games since a 3-6 start.
The Tigers gained no ground on first-place Harvard, though. The Crimson were 65-47 winners over Brown in Rhode Island. Both teams will have road games tomorrow, Princeton at Cornell and Harvard at Yale. The Ivy leaders will then meet next Friday in Jadwin Gym in a game televised by ESPNU.
Princeton trailed only early against Columbia and never again after putting together a little 6-0 run that gave the Tigers a 13-8 edge six minutes into the game. Princeton's largest lead was 31 points inside of the final three minutes before Columbia scored the game's last six points.
The Tigers' breakaway began in earnest when Columbia endured a scoring drought of more than seven minutes bridging halftime. At the start, Princeton led 27-20 before going on a 15-0 run that buried the Lions under a 22-point deficit less than two minutes into the second half.
Denton Koon may have had the biggest bounce-back of any individual player, seeing a seven-game double-digit scoring streak end with seven points at Harvard and answering with a career-best 23 points tonight. He and Ian Hummer were the only Tigers in double figures, with Princeton splitting the 65 points among nine players.
Maodo Lo, a Columbia freshman who had his career high against Princeton earlier this month with 16 points, found success against the Tigers again, leading his team with 15 points.
Postgame notes
• Ian Hummer continued his march toward becoming the second-leading scorer in program history. His 17 points gives him 1,518 for his career, trailing only Kit Mueller '91 (1,546) and former teammate Douglas Davis '12 (1,550) behind Bill Bradley '65 (2,503).
• Princeton's seniors completed a career sweep of Columbia and will have the chance to do the same against Dartmouth next Saturday night in Jadwin Gym. The last time a class went 8-0 against Columbia was the Class of 2005.
• The score was Columbia's lowest output against Princeton since a 63-35 Tiger win in Jadwin Gym on Feb. 7, 2009. It was Columbia's lowest score against Princeton in Manhattan since Jan. 29, 1999, when the Tigers won 46-40 in Levien Gym.
• The 25-point margin of victory was Princeton's largest over Columbia since a 76-46 win at Levien Gym on Feb. 11, 2011.
• Princeton has taken five of its six Ivy League victories this season by double figures. The only Ivy game Princeton didn't win by 10 or more was the Columbia game in Jadwin Gym on Feb. 2, a 72-66 Tiger win.
• Denton Koon's 23 points topped his previous career best of 22 points from Feb. 1 of this season against Cornell. The sophomore has reset his career best four times this season, all since Dec. 20.
• No Tiger had more than four rebounds in the game. Ian Hummer led Princeton with five assists.
