Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Junior guard Brian Barbour scored a game-high 22 points as Columbia knocked off the Manhattan men's basketball team on Saturday at Draddy Gymnasium. Coming off a four game road series and without the services of leading scorer George Beamon (14.8 ppg), who was sidelined with an injury, Manhattan (3-3) could not find its shooting rhythm as the Jaspers suffered their first home loss of the year. Manhattan freshman forward Emmy Andujar scored seven points and grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds, while senior forward Roberto Colonette scored in double-figures for the third straight game finishing with a team-high 10 points.
Columbia (1-4) capitalized on 21 Manhattan turnovers converting them into 26 points. Manhattan also had an off shooting night after going 48.5% from the field and 46.3% beyond the arc in its last two games against Fresno State and Colorado State. The Jaspers shot 26.2% (11-42) from the field against the Lions and were just 2-for-16 (12.5%) from 3-point territory.
Jaspers' sophomore Rhamel Brown gave Manhattan some energy off the bench as he finished with seven points on 3-for-4 shooting and had a season-high five blocks. Brown moved into the top-10 of the Jaspers' career blocks list advancing to ninth place with 77 in his young career.
The Lions jumped out to a 15-2 advantage less than seven minutes into the contest and never looked back. Manhattan pulled within eight points by halftime with Brown leading the Jaspers with all seven of his points and four blocks at the break.
Manhattan got to the free-throw line early in the second half to cut the deficit to 29-24 at the 14:57 mark on Colonette's free-throw. But Columbia answered with 14 straight points, seven coming from Barbour, over a five minute span to build its largest lead of the contest (19) and it was enough to hold off the Jaspers.
Lions' freshman forward Alex Rosenberg was the only other player to post double-figures in the low scoring affair. Rosenberg finished with 11 points, had five rebounds and knocked down two 3-pointers. Columbia junior forward John Daniels pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Manhattan looks to rebound on Tuesday when the Jaspers travel to Philadelphia to square off with Penn. Tip off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at The Palestra.