GAME NOTES: The Columbia Lions and the Yale Bulldogs will collide this evening in Ivy League action. Columbia has played two Ivy games thus far, both against Cornell, and those games ended in defeat. The most recent of the two took place last Saturday, a rather ugly 72-54 setback to the Big Red. Columbia has played nine true road games heading into this evening's tilt, and three have resulted in wins. As for Yale, it carried a three-game win streak into last Saturday's clash with Brown, but that tilt resulted in a 77-68 loss to the Bears. The Bulldogs are now 7-9 overall and 1-1 in Ivy action, but they do own a solid 5-2 mark at home. Columbia holds a 119-93 series lead over Yale, and the teams split a pair of meetings last season.

There is only one double-digit scorer in the lineup for Columbia, as John Baumann leads the team with 14.5 ppg. Generating offense has been a problem for the Lions, as they are only netting 64.0 ppg on 39.8 percent shooting from the floor. Fortunately, they have been able to limit the opposition to 65.8 ppg. In the most recent loss to Cornell, Brett Loscalzo paced Columbia with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor in 26 minutes of action. The Lions connected on only 34 percent of their field goal attempts in that clash and misfired on seven of their 18 free throws. A 41-27 rebounding disadvantage also hurt the cause.

Eric Flato is the leading scorer for Yale with 13.8 ppg, and he is a 93.3 percent shooter from the foul line. Ross Morin checks in with 10.3 ppg, and Caleb Holmes adds 10.2 ppg. The Bulldogs are scoring 69.7 ppg while surrendering 71.6 ppg to the opposition. Flato was outstanding in the loss to Brown last weekend, as he posted 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting from the floor. Morin made good on five of his field goal attempts and finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. Yale was outscored 22-11 at the foul line and outrebounded by a 33-24 margin, two obvious contributing factors in the setback. Also, the Bulldogs allowed the Bears to shoot 50 percent from the field.

Yale is the pick here, despite the obvious need for improvement on both teams. In the end, the Bulldogs will ride the momentum they get from the home crowd to their second Ivy win of the campaign.