NEW YORK – Columbia played its most complete game of the season, used stifling team defense and took control with a 13-0 run before halftime to record a dominating 74-46 women's basketball win over Milwaukee Saturday at Levien Gymnasium.

Columbia (4-3) registered its third consecutive victory, surrendering its fewest points in a game since a 60-46 win over UMBC in December of 2017. The 28-point margin of victory was the Lions' largest of the season and largest in any game since last March.
 
"It was a total team effort," said head coach Megan Griffith in her on-court postgame interview. "We were down numbers a little … but it was great to see, with the available players that we had, that everyone was battling for each other. We knew what we needed to do, we stuck to the game plan and we really played Columbia basketball today.
 
"When a really good team is able to execute like that, share the ball, play together, make quick decisions, you're going to be really hard to stop, especially when you care about the other side of the ball. The most impressive part was that we held them to 46 points … If we can make sure we limit mistakes on that end of the floor, it's going to lead to great offense on the other side."
 
It was Columbia's suffocating team defense that keyed the win. Columbia forced Milwaukee (2-5) into 19 turnovers, outscored the Panthers 25-9 off turnovers and limited them to 34.5 percent shooting and just 12 percent (3-25) from 3-point range.
 
"I think it's always better when we operate as a team," said sophomore Hannah Pratt, who scored a game-high 13 points along with senior Janiya Clemmons. "It's funny, I just said that to one of my teammates, how all of our scores were so distributed. That's what Coach said at the beginning of the game, that we wanted this to be a team game, so I thought it was amazing that we actually did that."
 
Four different Lions scored in double figures, led by Pratt and Clemmons. The two combined to shoot 12-of-17 from the field and 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Sophomore Mikayla Markham tallied 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting and was an assist shy of a double-double with a season-high nine. Sophomore Lilian Kennedy scored a season-high 10 points and first year Abbey Hsu pulled down a game- and season-high 12 rebounds.
 
With its 13-0 run, Columbia built a commanding 35-20 halftime lead. After Milwaukee had trimmed Columbia's second-quarter 12-point lead down to four, the Lions went to work. Markham started the run with a corner trey, Hsu came up with a steal and took the ball down an open floor for an easy layup, while Madison Pack came off the bench with a key 3-pointer. After another corner triple by Markham, the sophomore point guard drew a charge and then scored with a driving layup to push the lead to 17 points at 35-18.

Milwaukee could only cut the deficit to 15 points midway through the third quarter, but the Lions answered with a flurry of baskets. The lead grew to as many as 32 points, 65-33, on a Pack layup with eight minutes to play.
 
Milwaukee was led by Bre Cera's 12 points.

Saturday's victory avenged Columbia's 78-65 loss last year in Wisconsin. The Lions will continue their four-game homestand next Friday when it hosts Georgetown for its annual Education Day game. Tip at Levien Gymnasium is set for 11 a.m.

For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball program, follow @CULionsWBB on Twitter and Instagram, on Facebook at Facebook.com/ColumbiaWBB, on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.