Who's Playing
Cornell Big Red @ Columbia Lions
Current Records: Cornell 8-5, Columbia 11-2
How To Watch
- When: Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 2 p.m. ET
- Where: Francis S. Levien Gymnasium -- New York, New York
- TV: ESPN Plus
- Follow: CBS Sports App
- Online Streaming: Catch select College Basketball matches on Fubo (Try for free. Regional restrictions may apply.)
- Ticket Cost: $6.55
What to Know
Columbia is on a eight-game streak of home wins, while Cornell is on a three-game streak of away wins: one of those streaks is about to end. Both will face off in an Ivy battle at 2:00 p.m. ET on Saturday at Francis S. Levien Gymnasium. The Lions are strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 81.8 points per game this season.
Columbia is probably headed into the match with a chip on their shoulder considering Rutgers just ended the team's three-game winning streak two weeks ago. They were dealt a punishing 91-64 loss at the hands of the Scarlet Knights. The matchup marked the Lions' lowest-scoring game so far this season.
Columbia's defeat came about despite a quality game from Kenny Noland, who went 6 for 10 en route to 16 points plus eight rebounds. The dominant performance also gave Noland a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (80%).
Columbia struggled to get the ball back on offense and finished the game with only three offensive rebounds. That's the fewest offensive rebounds they've posted since back in November of 2023.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Cornell). They put a hurting on Penn State-Schuylkill to the tune of 123-71 on Sunday. The Big Red have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won four contests by 19 points or more this season.
Columbia's loss dropped their record down to 11-2. As for Cornell, their victory ended a three-game drought at home and bumped them up to 8-5.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Columbia hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 81.8 points per game. However, it's not like Cornell struggles in that department as they've been averaging 86.2. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Columbia is hoping to beat the odds on Saturday, as the experts think they're headed for a loss. This will be their first time playing as the underdogs at home this season.
Odds
Cornell is a slight 1.5-point favorite against Columbia, according to the latest college basketball odds.
The oddsmakers had a good feel for the line for this one, as the game opened with the Big Red as a 1-point favorite.
The oddsmakers are expecting fireworks from the offense and set the over/under at a high 164 points.
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Series History
Cornell has won 8 out of their last 10 games against Columbia.
- Mar 09, 2024 - Cornell 98 vs. Columbia 76
- Jan 09, 2024 - Cornell 91 vs. Columbia 79
- Mar 04, 2023 - Cornell 87 vs. Columbia 73
- Jan 16, 2023 - Cornell 102 vs. Columbia 85
- Mar 05, 2022 - Cornell 78 vs. Columbia 64
- Feb 09, 2022 - Cornell 88 vs. Columbia 75
- Jan 25, 2020 - Cornell 62 vs. Columbia 50
- Jan 18, 2020 - Columbia 75 vs. Cornell 61
- Jan 26, 2019 - Columbia 73 vs. Cornell 70
- Jan 19, 2019 - Cornell 60 vs. Columbia 59