“I thought Frankoski was an amazing offensive weapon that they had today,” Amaker said. “They shot the ball well, got him out of the blocks early, and kept us on our heels throughout the game. We had no answer for him, and I thought they played off of him really well.”

In the first half, the Crimson led by as many as five points as late as 6:18 left in the opening frame, when two Saunders free throws pushed the Crimson to a 27-26 advantage.

But the Lions outscored Harvard, 11-5, in the ensuing four minutes to take a seven-point lead, 38-31—the biggest advantage held by any team in the first half—with just over two minutes left to play in the first half. Saunders—who finished with a team-high 27 points—pulled Harvard back within two possessions with a three-point shot of his own with 38 seconds to play in the half.

Frankoski led his team with 20 in the first twenty minutes, including back-to-back triples during the key stretch in which Columbia secured a lead it would not relinquish for the remainder of the game.

Despite the loss, the Crimson remains atop the Ivy League standings thanks to formerly-undefeated Princeton’s loss to Yale Saturday night.

“Our league is just like any other league,” Amaker said. “It’s conference play, and it’s February. It’s going to be all the way down to the wire.”

—Staff writer Catherine E. Coppinger can be reached at ccoppinger@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @catcopp.