Army West Point Athletics
Army Welcomes Columbia For Mid-Week Tilt
November 20, 2017 | Men's Basketball
WEST POINT, N.Y. – Army West Point men's basketball welcomes Ivy League foe Columbia to Christl Arena on Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. tip on the Patriot League Network.Â
   Army posted an impressive 94-73 victory at Marist on Saturday in which Jordan Fox went off for a career-high 33 points. The junior finished his night 11-of-16 from the floor, 9-of-11 from behind-the-arc and 2-of-2 from the free throw line. His nine makes from long range tied a program record and was two shy of matching the Patriot League's top mark. For the game, Army shot 52.9 percent from the floor and 60.9 percent from downtown.
   Columbia is coming off a 79-65 lost at Penn State on Friday night. Three Lions earned double digits in that contest with sophomore Mike Smith's team-high 18 points leading the way. Quinton Adlesh and Nate Hickman also chipped in 11 points each, while Patrick Tape recorded a team-best seven rebounds, including four on the offensive glass.Â
   The last time these two teams faced each other Army registered a thrilling 88-83 come-from-behind victory. Following a back-and-forth affair, Columbia led 75-64 with a little less than eight minutes remaining. Army would answer though with a 20-6 run to pull in front 84-81 with 50 seconds left. The Lions were never able to recover.
HOW TO FOLLOW
ONLINE • Patriot League Network
RADIO • Army West Point Sports Network
WLNA (1420 AM, Peekskill, N.Y.)
AUDIO • Knight Vision
LIVE STATISTICS • GoArmyWestPoint.com
TICKETS • GoArmyWestPoint.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_MBB
GAME NOTES • Army | Columbia
FOX'S RED HOT PERFORMANCE
Junior guard Jordan Fox posted career highs in points (33), field goals made (11), three-pointers made (9) and three-pointers attempted (11) in Army's 94-73 victory over Marist on Saturday evening in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. His nine treys made matched a program record, which has now been achieved on four different occasions. It was the first time a Black Knight drained nine since Jarell Brown '08 did so on Jan. 2, 2008, in a game against Brown.Â
   The Jackson County, Ky., native led four cadet-athletes in double-digit points and posted Army's first 30-point performance since Tanner Plomb '16 tallied 31 in a 103-98 overtime victory against Gardner-Webb on Nov. 28, 2015.
SHARING THE ROCK
Tommy Funk and Jordan Fox return for the Black Knights as the only duo in the nation to record more than 4.6 assists per game last season. Funk was second in the conference with 4.8 helpers per contest, while Fox averaged 4.6 assists throughout the year to place him fourth. In Army's last three games, Funk is averaging 6.3 asissts to go along with Fox's 5.0 mark.
ABOUT THE LIONS
Columbia is off to a 1-2 start in its second season under the direction of head coach Jim Engles. Just a season ago, the Lions went 11-16 overall and 5-9 in Ivy League play. Columbia is replacing a core group of seniors that included Luke Petrasek (15.1 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.2 SPG) and Jeff Coby (6.2 PPG, 4.6 RPG). As a whole, the Lions return 64 percent of their scoring, 63 percent of their rebounds, 74 percent of their 3-point field goals made and 74 percent of their assists.
    Sophomore guard Mike Smith leads the 2017-18 squad with an impressive 19.7 points per game, while dishing out a team-high 11 assists. Junior guard Quinton Adlesh (14.0 PPG) is the only other Lion to average double-digit points. The Lions tied a school record with 16 made 3-pointers in their win over Longwood on Nov. 14, having previously accomplished the feat against Brown (Feb. 10, 2012) and Kean (Nov. 13, 2015).Â
A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD...
Give Army its first win over the Lions at West Point since the 2003-04 season-opener that favored the home side, 60-57. It would also mark back-to-back victories over Columbia for the Black Knights.
ARMY VS. IVY LEAGUE TEAMS
The Black Knights are 137-160 all-time against current members of the Ivy League. Of the eight schools in the league, Army has faced Columbia (58 times) and Yale (52 times) the most. Army has played all current members of the Ivy League a minimum of 24 times (Harvard and Brown). The Cadets lead four series against Ivy League schools in Harvard (16-8), Brown (15-9), Yale (28-24) and Dartmouth (19-18). Army has also competed against Cornell (13-20), Pennsylvania (12-21), Columbia (21-37) and Princeton (13-23).
STARTING FIVE
Of Army's starting five, four are averaging over a .500 field goal percentage with all five shooting better than .450. Matt Wilson's .667 field goal percentage leads the Patriot League. Three have averaged 4.5 or more rebounds per contest, with all four of them shooting over .500 from behind-the-arc who have attempted a trey. Jordan Fox is shooting 13-of-22 from long range, draining the second-most 3-pointers in the league. Luke Morrison has added 9-of-16 treys.
NEXT UP
Army begins an eight-game road trip at Niagara on Sunday for a 7 p.m. tipoff. The Purple Eagles are competing in the Barclays Center Classic against BYU (Tuesday), Alabama A&M (Friday) and either Western Carolina or Texas Arlington (Saturday) prior to hosting the Black Knights next Monday.Â
