Under the Radar Game of the Day – Saturday, February 13: Princeton at Columbia

Under the Radar Game of the Day: Princeton at Columbia, 7:00 PM Eastern, espn3

The battle for the Ivy League regular season championship (and the automatic bid that comes with it) heats up today as the Princeton Tigers travel to take on the Columbia Lions in New York.  Both teams enter play tonight with one conference loss on the season, one game behind undefeated Yale in the loss column.  In fact, both teams lost at Yale earlier this season, meaning that tonight’s winner will be able to remain only one game behind (and both teams do have the Bulldogs coming to their home courts in the next few weeks).  Tonight’s winner will still technically control their own destiny in the Ivy League, while the loser would need some help during the last three weeks of the season if they want to at least tie for first place and force a playoff.

Princeton enters tonight’s game with a record of 15-5 overall and 5-1 in Ivy play.  Their loss at Yale is their only loss since the calendar turned to 2016.  The Tigers are led by Henry Caruso who has scored in double digits each of his last six games including 26 points in the loss at Yale.  Columbia currently sits at 17-7 overall and 6-1 in the Ivy League.  The Lions have won 8 of their last 9 games, led by three seniors in Maodo Lo, Alex Rosenberg and Grant Mullins.  Lo led the way with 21 points last night in a win at Penn, while Rosenberg was the hero of an earlier buzzer-beating win at Harvard.  If the Lions’ veteran leaders can come through tonight, they have a great shot to pick up the big home victory.  If not, they will be playing catch-up the rest of the season, especially if Yale keeps winning.