GAME NOTES: The Columbia Lions try to follow up a sweep of Penn and Princeton at home last week with a successful trip to Dartmouth in Ivy League play tonight in New Hampshire. Although neither the Quakers nor the Tigers are the powers this season that they've been in the past, for the Lions to sweep the two programs in back-to-back games at home last week is still impressive. Columbia began with a 74-58 defeat of Penn at Levien Gym on Friday night and followed that up barely 24 hours later with a 58-53 win over the Tigers, giving the team three wins in the last four outings and an even 3-3 mark in conference play. As for Dartmouth, it has now fallen in four straight outings, all of them on the road and against Ivy League competition. Last Saturday, the program was blown out by Yale by a score of 97-58, representing the most points allowed by the program this season. With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, the Lions hold a 100-92 edge over the Big Green, after sweeping a pair of meetings a year ago.

Columbia trailed by as many as seven points in the second half against the Tigers on Saturday, but a 15-point swing over the course of 13 minutes spelled victory for the Lions. Niko Scott made good on 3-of-4 attempts behind the three-point line to finish with a team-best 12 points, followed by John Baumann and his 10 points, although the latter shot a mere 4-of-9 at the free- throw line. Then again, the team as a whole made just 10-of-20 at the charity stripe, so it wasn't an isolated incident. Over the course of his 21 starts, Baumann has produced 15.0 ppg, making him the lone double-digit scorer on the Columbia roster. Baumann is also the top rebounding threat for the Lions with close to six and a half boards per game, which is just enough to get the team into a virtual tie with opponents at 33.0 rpg this year.

Even before the halfway mark of the opening period, the Big Green found themselves down big to Yale last Saturday, trailing by 16 points, but it wouldn't end there because Dartmouth was on a course to lose by 39 on the road that night. Alex Barnett finished with a team-best 15 points on just 6-of-17 shooting from the field, while Kurt Graeber and DeVon Mosley accounted for 12 and 10 points, respectively, which means the rest of the roster combined for only 21 points. The leading scorer in eight straight and 10 of the last 11 games, Barnett paces the squad overall this season with his 16.5 ppg, is tops with seven rebounds per game and is dangerously close to leading the unit with his 42 assists as well. Mosley chips in 11.6 ppg for a squad that is being outscored by Ivy opponents by an average of more than 13 ppg at the moment.

The sweep of former Ivy League powers Penn and Princeton is rather historic for the Lions, but the team can't get caught up in what happened last week, or else the Big Green might take advantage tonight, although it seems unlikely.