Men's Basketball Falls to Columbia, 90-63

(boxscore)

11/21/05 -- Columbia center Ben Nwachukwu scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lift the Lions past the Long Island University men’s basketball team, 90-63, at Levien Gym on Tuesday evening.

Columbia shot 64.7 percent from the field in the first half and 56.4 percent for the game while limiting LIU to 35.9 percent shooting. Freshman Aurimas Adomaitis (Kaunas, Lithuania) tallied the first 13 points of his career on 6-of-7 shooting.

A jumper in the lane by James Williams (DeSoto, Texas) opened the scoring 30 seconds into the contest, but Columbia would rattle off the game’s next 15 points to take command early. Nwachukwu scored seven during the run and tallied 17 first-half points as the Lions went into the locker room with a 54-35 lead.

Williams had 11 points in the opening stanza and Adomaitis scored 10 off the bench on 5-of-6 shooting.

A three-pointer from Williams with 14:16 remaining in the second half would pull the Blackbirds to within 11, but it would be as close as they would get as four straight foul shots by Columbia’s Patrick Foley would shift momentum back in the Lions favor.

Williams finished with 16 points as he surpassed Luther Green for 14th place on the all-time LIU scoring list (1,288).

The Blackbirds continue their season on Saturday, Nov. 25 against Old Westbury at 7:00 p.m. at the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center.