{"id":269678,"date":"2025-11-07T21:57:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269678\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T21:57:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:57:13","slug":"mens-basketball-dominates-new-haven-in-season-opener-with-71-53-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269678\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball Dominates New Haven in Season Opener With 71-53 Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEST HAVEN, Conn. \u2014 Columbia men’s basketball opened the 2025-26 season with an impressive 71-53 win over New Haven at The Hazell Center on Friday afternoon. Head coach\u00a0Kevin Hovde<\/a>\u00a0secured his first career victory.<\/p>\n

“The guys came in here and competed the right way,” Hovde said in his postgame interview on NEC Front Row<\/a>. “That was the biggest thing for us. Focusing on defending, rebounding, and taking care of the ball. I thought our guys tried to do that.”<\/p>\n

A well-balanced offensive attack led the Lions (1-0), as\u00a0Kenny Noland<\/a>,\u00a0Miles Franklin<\/a>, and\u00a0Avery Brown<\/a>\u00a0poured in double-figures. Noland had a team-high 14 points, while Franklin dropped 13, and Brown had 10.\u00a0Zine Eddine Bedri<\/a>\u00a0led the team with six rebounds and chipped in nine points. Columbia shot 55.1 percent from the floor (27-49) and 50 percent (8-16) from three-point range.<\/p>\n

New Haven (0-1) was held to just a 21.9 percent mark beyond the arc. The Lions led by as many as 28 points in the second half and won the rebounding battle, 41-27.<\/p>\n

Blair Thompson<\/a>\u00a0and Noland each knocked down their first three-pointers of the season to give Columbia a 6-3 lead at the first media timeout of the afternoon. Columbia’s first three baskets came from behind the arc.<\/p>\n

Over a 4:30 stretch midway through the opening half, the Lions broke off a 14-3 run and expanded the lead to 21-10 with 7:46 until the break.<\/p>\n

Nine different players scored in the first half for Columbia, led by seven each from Brown, Noland, and Bedri. The Lions closed out the half with a 21-8 run to take a 42-18 advantage into the locker room. Columbia shot 65.2 percent from the floor compared to New Haven’s 25.9 percent clip.<\/p>\n

New Haven came out of the gates with a 12-4 run in the second half, forcing Columbia to call a timeout with 17:03 to go.<\/p>\n

After holding a 16-point lead, Columbia exploded with an 11-0 spurt to break the game open and go ahead 59-34 with 10:23 remaining.<\/p>\n

“We have a lot of guys that can help us,”\u00a0Hovde said. “You never know whose night it is going to be. Our depth is definitely a strength of this team.”<\/p>\n

The Lions take on No. 4 UConn on Monday at 6:30 p.m. inside Gampel Pavilion. It will be Columbia’s first matchup against a ranked team since 2019 (at No. 9 Virginia) and 10th contest in program history against a top-five team.<\/p>\n

Postgame Notes:<\/p>\n

-Columbia improves to 80-44 all-time in season openers

\n-The Lions have won their second straight season opener

\n–Miles Franklin<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Connor Igoe<\/a>\u00a0each made their collegiate debut<\/p>\n

Follow The Lions

\nFor the latest on Columbia men’s basketball, follow @CULionsMBB on X and Instagram, search Columbia men’s basketball on Facebook, or follow on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST HAVEN, Conn. \u2014 Columbia men’s basketball opened the 2025-26 season with an impressive 71-53 win over New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-269678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}