By The Daily Item
NEW YORK -- A balanced scoring effort for the Bucknell men, riding a three-game win streak, was not enough offset hot-shooting Columbia on Tuesday night.
On their home floor, the Lions knocked down 13-of-18 threes, including 7-of-8 from Noruwa Agho in a 73-59 victory over the Bison at Levien Gymnasium.
Agho scored a game-high 23 points as Columbia improved to 2-1. Patrick Behan scored 15, Stephen Tyree had 12 and G.W. Boon 11 off the bench for the Bison, who are now 3-3.
Bucknell trailed by three at the half but led by eight points at 51-43 with 10:14 left after Boon hit his third 3-pointer in a two-minute span. But the Bison could not close it out. They would not make another field goal until the final seconds, and Columbia outscored them 30-8 over the final 10 minutes.
Trailing 29-26 at the half, Bucknell came out with the first seven points of the second stanza to regain the lead. Tyree's second trey of the night tied it at 29, then consecutive baskets by Behan and Darryl Shazier put the Bison up 33-29.
Later in the second half the two teams got locked up in a 3-point shootout.
Boon hit three in a row and Bryan Cohen one for the Bison, but the piping-hot Agho hit three straight himself to keep the Lions it it.
Boon's trey gave Bucknell its largest lead at 51-43, but then Agho made two deep threes in a row to make it 51-49.
Columbia retook the lead at 55-54 on two Patrick Foley free throws. It was 56-54 with 3:45 left in the game when Agho hit his seventh three of the night, this one with a defender draped all over him.
It was 60-57 inside three minutes to play when Columbia came up with a killer four-point possession. John Daniels went 1-for-2 from the line, but the rebound on the miss went out of bounds off Behan. The Lions finally missed a 3-pointer but collected another offensive carom, then Scott hit a three to make it 64-57 with 1:51 left.
Columbia then salted the game away from the foul line and two breakaway layups.
The story for Columbia in the first half was 3-point shooting. The Lions made 7 of 10 from long distance in the first half, compared to 2 of 8 for Bucknell.
The game was tied at 17 after two Behan free throws, but Steve Egee and Foley hit threes on consecutive possessions to give the Lions a six-point lead. After a Behan layup off a feed from Cohen, Egee canned another trey to give Columbia their largest lead of the half, seven points at 26-19.
Bucknell scored seven of the final 10 points of the half, and might have had more were it not for two missed front ends of 1-and-1s. A Tyree 3-pointer and two free throws by Mike Muscala brought the Bison within 26-24, but Agho answered with yet another bomb.
Tyree hit two from the line to make it 29-26, then Bucknell came up with a big defensive stop to keep the deficit at three heading into the locker room.
Bucknell shot 42.2 percent from the floor and went 7-for-17 from the arc. The Bison were 14 of 19 from the foul line, but three of the misses came on front ends of 1-and-1s.
Columbia shot 45.5 percent overall, but a whopping 72.2 percent from long range.
Foley, Scott and Egee made two treys each, in addition to Agho's seven. Agho is now 14-for-18 from 3-point range in three games this season.
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