Coming off a relatively efficient weekend in terms of controlling the ball, Harvard took a step back on Friday night, recording only eight assists compared to 23 turnovers.

“One of the schemes that they use is to try to make your offense ugly,” Sullivan said. “Right now, for us, that really becomes problematic. We don’t cut as well. We can’t get open as easily. We can’t get the ball on the floor…Then, we wind up watching and we’re not as effective on offense.”

The Crimson also failed to contain the Lions offense, as Columbia shot 48.9 percent from the field, nailing 43.4 percent of its three-point attempts. Ten Lion trifectas—compared to only two for Harvard—allowed Columbia to pull away in the contest.

“We tend to settle for threes,” Columbia coach Joe Jones said. “But that’s the strength of our team. We have some guys that can really shoot the ball well.”

The Crimson managed to hold the Ivy League’s fourth-leading scorer entering the contest—Lion forward Matt Preston—to eight points, only half of his season average.

“He’s coming off two tremendous games,” Sullivan said, “but tonight we anticipated him going for really big numbers and we held him to an average game in points and an average game in rebounding.”

—Staff writer Michael R. James can be reached at mrjames@fas.harvard.edu.