The Cornell Big Red and the Columbia Lions meet Monday in college basketball action from Levien Gym. Cornell is currently 13-4 overall after a win versus Yale on Friday. As for Columbia, they’re sitting at 6-13 this year. The Lions lost to Harvard on Saturday. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
Cornell hit a 9-3 run over their first 12 games, losing to Boston College, Miami FL and Syracuse along the way. The Red are 4-1 in their last four games with wins over Binghamton, Dartmouth, Penn and Yale.
In the Yale game on Friday, the Red were down 49-43 going into the second half. Cornell hit a 51-33 run from there and won it 94-82. Nazir Williams was the lead scorer on 27 points with five rebounds and five assists.
Over on the Columbia side, they went 4-8 over their first 12 with wins over Delaware State, SUNY Maritime, New Hampshire and Sarah Lawrence. The Lions are 2-5 since then with wins over only Lafayette and Yale.
Matched up against Harvard on Saturday, the Lions were down 36-18 going into the second half. Columbia posted a 37-33 deficit from there and lost 73-51. Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa was the top scorer on 15 points with five rebounds.
PICK: I’m going to stay with Cornell. The Big Red are fresh off a nice comeback win over a good Yale team, and they’ve gone 6-1 over the last seven outings. Cornell has scored 68 or more points in every game during that time. As for Columbia, they’ve been at 62 points or fewer in five of their last six games. The Lions probably don’t have the firepower to keep up if Cornell gets going.