Looking to improve on a two-game win streak, men’s basketball’s week got off to a lackluster start on Tuesday night.

Columbia (2-3, 0-0 Ivy) played a tight contest against Lehigh University (1-4), a squad looking for its first win in a young season. While the Lions overcame a 13-point deficit, they stumbled with less than 10 minutes left in the second half as the Mountain Hawks surged to a 79-72 victory. First-year guard Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa turned in another stellar performance, but turnovers and inefficient shooting plagued the Light Blue.

“We obviously did a great job of playing with reckless abandon against Binghamton,” head coach Jim Engles said, referencing his squad’s thrilling come-from-behind win against the Bearcats last week. “This game was more possession to possession. We just didn’t win the possessions.”

While the Lions tied the game up at 10 apiece in the fifth minute, led by guard Evan Taylor and forward Jakub Alamudun, Lehigh went on a 17-4 run to jump to a 27-14 advantage, the largest margin of the game.

The Light Blue slowly chipped away at the Mountain Hawks’ lead. Over the next seven and a half minutes, Columbia held Lehigh to only six points. Meanwhile, using a balanced scoring approach,—six Lions scored during the run—Columbia cut Lehigh’s lead to four with 2:10 remaining in the first half.

The Lions’ offense stagnated, though, turning the ball over twice and only converting on one shot in the final two minutes of the first half. Taking advantage of two three-pointers, Lehigh entered the break leading 41-31.

Coming out of halftime, the Lions looked disciplined and coordinated, consistently getting to the rim and drawing fouls while stifling the Mountain Hawks’ offense. The Light Blue tied the game at 53 with a 7-0 run that started at the 12:20 mark of the second half. A layup from sophomore forward Liam Murphy gave the Lions their first lead of the night at 59-58, but they could never capitalize on enough opportunities to run away with the game.

On a bad shooting night when Columbia only shot 38 percent from the floor, free-throws played an instrumental role in keeping the Lions in the game. The Light Blue posted a season high in made free throws and attempts with a 19-22 line, which ignited its second-half rally. Murphy—who led the Lions with 26 in their win over the College of Mount Saint Vincent—struggled from the field, going 4-11 as Columbia looked for offense outside of Rubio De La Rosa.

“Getting to the free throw line is something that we preach, and it was good to see us attack the basket and get to the free throw line and make our free throws,” Engles said.

After the Lions led with seven and a half minutes to go, the Mountain Hawks regained the form that powered their play in the first half. Lehigh notched 10 unanswered points that effectively squashed Columbia’s hopes at stealing a game on the road. Lehigh guard Marques Wilson helped ignite the rally, draining a three and adding two steals over the Mountain Hawks’ game-defining stretch.

Engles said that Lehigh’s late-game pressure provided valuable experience for his young squad.

“Everything’s a learning opportunity,” Engles said. “When the game becomes tight, the last four minutes of the game [are] much different than when there’s 16 minutes left in the game and you’re just fighting back.”

Rubio De La Rosa continued to impress. The first-year dropped a career-high 24 points on nine-for-20 shooting from the field to go along with six boards and three assists. However, the Lions’ primary ball-handler also struggled to take care of the ball, turning it over five times. Tonight, the Light Blue failed to establish a second option for the dynamic young guard, as Murphy, sophomore guard Zavian McLean, and junior forward Patrick Harding all struggled on offense.

On the other side, four Mountain Hawks scored in the double digits. Taylor led the way with 18 points, while forward Jeameril Wilson and big man Dominic Parolin added 12 each.

Despite the Light Blue’s underperformance in the second half, Engles remains hopeful in his young roster, which he believes will continue to improve and establish consistency as the season progresses.

“We’ve been in every game. We’ve had lapses, and it’s about building through those lapses,” Engles said. “I told them at the end, ‘We’re learning how to crawl. We’re getting there at times, and then we’re falling down. We gotta get up and start walking around, and then we’re gonna start running.’”

The Lions will next take on Boston College on the road on Friday. Tipoff is at 2 p.m.