The Lions are led by point guard Brian Barbour, a 2011-2012 first-team All-Ivy recipient who is sixth in the conference in scoring (13.6 points per game) while pacing the league in assist-to-turnover ratio.

The senior scored 23 points in the teams’ last meeting, and Amaker said that given Barbour’s quickness, sophomore wing Wesley Saunders, rather than Chambers, could be given the task of defending the point guard.

“Wesley is our best perimeter defender,” Amaker said. “We need him to be able to guard multiple positions.”

6’9” center Mark Cisco (9.8 PPG, 5.7 RPG) could also pose trouble inside for the undersized Crimson, which starts the 6’6” Jonah Travis at center.

“What we may lack in height and size, we’re hopeful that they’re sitting over there thinking, ‘Well how are we going to guard Jonah because he’s so quick?,’” Amaker said.

The stakes are similar for both opponents. Sitting in the middle of the standings with multiple conference losses on their resumes, both Cornell and Columbia know that one more defeat would all but doom their chances at a league title.

“We do feel like this is a chance, this weekend, for things in a lot of ways to start taking shape in our league,” Amaker said. “If we can somehow survive this weekend [with two wins]...it would be an amazing feat for us at this stage in the conference race.”

--Staff Writer Scott A. Sherman can be reached at ssherman13@college.harvard.edu