Women's Basketball Travels to Ivy Leaders Princeton, Penn
2/23/2017 3:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball
NEW YORK – The Columbia women's basketball team (13-10, 3-7 Ivy) goes on its final road trip of the regular season to battle the top two teams in the Ivy League. The Lions take on Princeton (13-9, 7-2 Ivy) Friday night, followed by league-leading Penn (15-7, 8-1 Ivy) Saturday night. Both games tip at 7 p.m. on the Ivy League Digital Network.
NEWS/NOTES
• Columbia (13-10) has posted its most wins since going 18-10 in 2009-10. This marks the third time the Lions have reached 13 wins since becoming a Div. I program for the start of the 1986-87 season.
• Camille Zimmerman is seven points from Columbia's single-season Div. I scoring record held by Judie Lomax. Zimmerman enters the weekend with 514 total points. Lomax set the program record in 2009-10 with 521. Zimmerman is on pace to complete the regular season with 603 points, which would break the program's all-time single-season record of 598 set by Ellen Bossert in 1985-86 (NCAA Div. III).
• Zimmerman has scored 20 points in eight consecutive games. She averages an Ivy League-best 22.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game. In Ivy League play, she averages the league's top marks of 24.8 points and 10.1 rebounds.
• Zimmerman climbed to No. 2 on Columbia's all-time scoring list with 48 points in two games last weekend. She has 1,314 career points, which is 133 behind the record of 1,447 held by Ula Lysniak (1983-87). Senior Tori Oliver is also among Columbia's top five all-time scorers, entering the weekend fourth at an even 1,300 career points.
• Columbia earned a season sweep over Dartmouth with a 69-48 victory last Saturday in New York. It marked the Lions first sweep of the Big Green since 2010, and their first over an Ivy League opponent since Brown in 2013.
• The Lions will look for their first win against Penn since 2011 and their first against Princeton since 2008.
ZIMMERMAN ON RECORD SCORING PACE
• Junior Camille Zimmerman is seven points away from Columbia's single-season Div. I scoring record and is also on pace to break the program's all-time record for points in a season. Zimmerman enters the weekend with 514 total points through 23 games, which puts her on pace to finish the regular season with about 603 points. The program's Div. I scoring record is 521 points, accomplished by Columbia Hall of Famer Judie Lomax '10BC during her senior 2009-10 campaign. Zimmerman is averaging 22.3 points per game this season, which would also break Lomax's Div. I record for scoring average (18.6, 2009-10). The program's all-time single-season records in total points and scoring average are held by Columbia Hall of Famer Ellen Bossert (1984-86), who totaled 598 points and averaged 22.1 per game in the 1985-86 season (NCAA Div. III).
NOTES ON ZIMMERMAN'S SCORING MARKS
• Junior Camille Zimmerman is averaging 22.3 points per game and has totaled 514 points this season. In Ivy League play, she has 248 points and is averaging 24.8 per contest. All of those marks lead the Ivy League.
• The last Ivy League player to average 20 points in a season was Harvard's Reka Cserny (20.9 in 2004-05).
• Only six Ivy League players have scored 600 points in a season, the last was Harvard's Hana Peljto in 2003-04.
• Only three Ivy League players have averaged 25 points in an Ivy League season, the last being Penn's Diana Caramanico in 1998-99. The record is 28.5 held by Allison Feaster of Harvard (1997-98).
• Zimmerman has set a new Columbia single-season record for field goal attempts with 454 to this point. The previous mark was 446, set by Shawnee Pickney in 2000-01.
SEASON SWEEP
• Columbia earned a season sweep over Dartmouth to mark its first against the Big Green since 2010. It was also Columbia's first season sweep against an Ivy League opponent since going 2-0 against Brown in 2013. The Lions defeated Dartmouth, 91-88, in a quadruple-overtime game on Jan. 27 in Hanover, and completed the sweep on Feb. 18 in New York, 69-48. The 20-point victory was Columbia's first in Ivy League play since 2011.
OLIVER CASHING IN AT THE STRIPE
• Senior Tori Oliver has made 461 career free throws on 612 attempts, which are both Columbia records. She ranks No. 7 in Ivy League history in both makes and attempts. Among active NCAA players, Oliver is No. 9 in makes and No. 12 in attempts. Her career .753 percentage ranks No. 7 all-time at Columbia
DYNAMIC DUO
• Senior Tori Oliver and junior Camille Zimmerman are two of Columbia's top five all-time scorers. Zimmerman enters the weekend in second with 1,314 career points, while Oliver checks in fourth at an even 1,300. Zimmerman is 133 points away from Ula Lysniak's all-time program record of 1,447 (1983-87). Oliver is nine points from passing Kathy Gilbert (1987-91) for third. Both Zimmerman and Oliver rank top 10 in career rebounds, with Oliver at 633 and Zimmerman at 611.
• Oliver and Zimmerman have each totaled 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in their careers, marking the first time in the program's Div. I era that two teammates actively played together with those accolades. It is also the first time since the 1990-91 season that Columbia had two 1,000-point scorers on the floor together − the last duo was Kathy Gilbert (1,309 points) and Jennifer Beubis (1,039 points), who played together from 1987-91. Oliver and Zimmerman join Ula Lysniak (1983-87), Kathy Gilbert (1987-91), Shawnee Pickney (1997-01), Ellen Bossert (1984-86) and Lauren Dwyer (2007-11) in the program's 1,000-500 club.
CRASHING THE GLASS
• Columbia ranks No. 9 in the NCAA in rebound margin (+9.9). The Lions were not outrebounded through their first 19 games of the season before getting outdone by both Penn and Princeton on the same weekend. The Lions have outrebounded four opponents by 20 or more, including Richmond, 54-33 (Nov. 13), Loyola Maryland, 45-23 (Nov. 30), UMass Lowell, 47-23 (Dec. 2), and NJIT, 50-27 (Jan. 4).
SCOUTING PRINCETON
• The Tigers (13-9, 7-2 Ivy) got off to a slow start in conference play, dropping their first two games to Penn and Brown, but have won seven straight since. Princeton returns home for the first time since Feb. 4, when it earned a 63-58 overtime victory against Harvard. The Tigers earned four straight road wins in the meantime and enter with the Ivy League's top marks in scoring margin (+9.4), field goal percentage defense (35.6 pct.), 3-point defense (27.9 pct.), rebounds per game (44.09) and steals per game (8.7).
• Bella Alarie and Leslie Robinson are Princeton's leaders in scoring and rebounding. Alarie, a freshman, enters averaging a team-high 12.8 points, while ranking second in rebounds (7.1) to Robinson's 7.9. The rookie's scoring output is even better in Ivy League play (14.4), where she is the reigning Rookie of the Week. Alarie has been named Ivy League Player of the Week three times and Rookie of the Week eight times. Robinson averages 10 points a game overall and 12.7 through league competition. Robinson is tied with Columbia's Camille Zimmerman at 10.1 rebounds per game in Ivy League play.
SCOUTING PENN
• The Quakers (15-7, 8-1 Ivy) are the defending Ivy League champions and currently hold the top seed for the first ever Ivy League Tournament (March 11-12). They hold a one game lead over Princeton after suffering their first loss in league play to Yale, 81-75, last Saturday in New Haven. Penn is very strong defensively and likes to slow the game down, allowing an Ivy League-low 53.0 points per game, which also ranks No. 4 in the NCAA. They also lead the Ivy League in blocks per game (5.9), assists per game (15.1), fewest turnovers per game (12.0) and assist/turnover ratio (1.26). Penn's 12 turnovers per contest rank No. 7 nationally.
• Michelle Nwokedi and Sydney Stipanovich head the Penn offense with 13.7 and 11.8 points per game, respectively. However, it was sophomore Princess Aghayere who did most of the damage to the Lions in New York, scoring 21 points in 22 minutes off the bench on 9 of 11 shooting. The performance propelled Aghayere to her first Ivy League Player of the Week selection. She averages 5.4 points on the season and 7.7 points in Ivy League play. Anna Ross heads the Quakers in scoring through the conference season with 12.8 per game.
#PATHTOTHEPALESTRA
• The Ivy League will conduct postseason tournaments for both men's and women's basketball at The Palestra in Philadelphia on March 11-12, 2017. The four-team tournaments will determine the conference's automatic bids to the NCAA Division I Basketball Championships, and all six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks.
#IVYMADNESS
• Tickets on now on sale for the inaugural Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments, which will take place Saturday & Sunday, March 11-12, 2017, at the Palestra in Philadelphia. The top four teams will earn berths to the tournament, with the semifinals on Saturday and the championships on Sunday. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.IvyMadness.com.
COLUMBIA BASKETBALL PODCAST
• The Columbia University Sports Management program is producing a series of podcasts involving the Columbia men's and women's basketball programs. The podcasts are part of the program's podcast series, The CUSP Show. Several episodes are already available and can be downloaded for free in the App Store. Fans can access the podcasts in a variety of other ways as well, which includes going to BlogTalkRadio.com/TheCUSPshow. The podcasts will also be posted as they become available to GoColumbiaLions.com.
UP NEXT…
• Columbia concludes the regular season at home with games against Brown and Yale. The Bears visit Levien Gymnasium Friday at 7 p.m., followed by the Bulldogs for the finale on Saturday at 6 p.m.
