NEW YORK – Ivy League Tournament implications are at stake as Columbia women's basketball hosts Brown and Yale for what will be the team's home finale this Friday and Saturday. The Lions begin the weekend against Brown on Friday at 7 p.m., followed by Senior Night against Yale on Saturday at 5 p.m. Both games are available live on ESPN+. Friday's game is also live on SNY. Saturday's SNY broadcast will run on tape delay.
NATIONAL GIRLS AND WOMEN IN SPORTS DAY CLINIC
• Columbia is celebrating National Girls and Women in Sports Day with a clinic prior to Friday's 7 p.m. game against Brown. Youth ages 5-12 will receive instruction from members of the women's soccer, women's golf, and field hockey teams. Registration is just $25 and includes food, a Columbia basketball hoop and a ticket to the game.
Click here to register for the clinic.
COLUMBIA-BARNARD CELEBRATION
• Saturday, the Lions are celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium. Current and former Barnard student-athletes will be attendance for a special recognition between the first and second quarters.
Click here for more information on the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium.
GIRL SCOUT DAY
• Saturday is also Girl Scout Day at Levien Gymnasium. Over 100 girl scouts will be in attendance earning merit badges during a pregame clinic. For more information, call 1-888-LIONS-11.
OPENING TIPS
• Columbia will be celebrating the careers of its senior class this weekend. Senior Night is set for Saturday, where the Lions will honor
Josie Little,
Sarah Elston and
Abby Lee during a pregame ceremony.
• The Lions head into the final two weekends of the season still alive in the race for the Ivy League Tournament. Columbia (3-7) is tied with Cornell (3-7) for sixth, but is just two games back of both Dartmouth (5-5) and Yale (5-5). The top four teams qualify for the tournament, March 16-17, which will be hosted by Yale.
•
Janiya Clemmons enters the weekend averaging 16.3 points over her last nine games, including four 20-point games through her last six. She ranks No. 2 on the team in scoring (12.3), rebounding (5.9) and assists (2.3).
•
Sienna Durr leads the Lions in scoring (14.6) and rebounding (6.2). She has a chance to become the first Columbia first-year to lead the team in both categories since Edytte Key in 2001-02 (10.7 pts, 7.1 reb).
• Columbia is looking for its first season sweep over Brown since 2013 and its first three-game winning streak over the Bears since winning seven straight from 2008-11.
• Columbia last swept an Ivy League opponent in 2017 when it earned a, 91-88, quadruple-overtime victory at Dartmouth, followed by a, 69-48, victory three weeks later in New York.
• Columbia's first-year class has provided 51 percent of the team's scoring, 54 percent of its rebounds and 59 percent of its assists this season.
• First-year
Mikayla Markham has 109 total assists this season and is currently two away from cracking the single-season top 10. The single-season assists record of 148 is held by head coach
Megan Griffith (2005-06).
• Markham averages an Ivy League-best 5.0 assists per game and carries a 2.14 assist/turnover ratio. She ranks third in assists/game among freshmen and No. 4 in assist/turnover ratio.
• Sophomore
Riley Casey ranks No. 4 in the Ivy League in 3-point pct (.367) and No. 3 in 3-pointers/game (2.5).
• Casey marked her 30th career double-figure scoring game on Saturday at Princeton.
•
Sienna Durr ranks No. 2 in the Ivy League in field goal percentage (.488), a mark which also ranks No. 2 among all NCAA freshman. She is No. 8 among NCAA freshmen in scoring (14.6).
• Clemmons was named to the Ivy League weekly Honor Roll for a team-best 10th time on Monday.
• First-year
Lilian Kennedy went a perfect 6-for-6 shooting and scored a career-high 13 points two weeks ago against Brown. She became the first Lion this season to go 5-for-5 or better from the field.
• Columbia's two-point margin of victory over Brown two weeks ago was the closest in the series since March 5, 2004 when Brown earned a 67-66 win in Providence.
• Senior
Abby Lee is one appearance away from 100 in her career.
SCOUTING BROWN
• Brown (9-17, 1-9 Ivy) enters the weekend on a nine-game losing streak after falling Harvard and Dartmouth. The Bears suffered their worst loss of the season to the Crimson, 98-55, and were held to their lowest point total of the season the next day in a, 78-43, loss in New Hampshire. They are alone in last in the Ivy League standings and rank at the bottom statistically in scoring defense (78.0), scoring margin (-7.1), field goal percentage (.389), field goal defense (.428) and rebound margin (-7.7). The Bears like to run a fast-paced game and get as many shots up as possible, averaging 70.9 points per game to rank No. 2 in the league. They also look for turnover opportunities, ranking atop the league in steals (9.8) with a +1.38 turnover margin. Justine Gaziano averages 18.5 points per game to rank No. 2 in the league individually. Shayna Mehta has come up with 90 steals (3.5/game) and is five from tying Brown's single-season record.
SCOUTING YALE
• Yale (15-10, 5-5 Ivy) is trying to hang on to the fourth and final spot to qualify for the Ivy League Tournament. The Bulldogs dropped a pair of games last weekend at Harvard and Dartmouth and now find themselves tied for fourth with the Big Green (5-5). One of their big strengths is rebounding, where they average 42.4 per game to rank No. 23 nationally and carry a +5.6 margin to rank among the NCAA's top 50. They are led by the Ivy League's top scorer, Roxy Barahman, who averages 19.2 points per game and went for 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against the Lions in New Haven. She enters the weekend eight points away from 1,000 in her career. First-year forward Camilla Emsbo averages a team-best 8.2 rebounds, good for third in the league.
CLEMMONS HEATING UP AT THE RIGHT TIME
• Junior
Janiya Clemmons enters the weekend red hot. She has reached double figures in scoring in eight of her last nine games, which includes four 20-point games and two games in which she went for 20 points and 10 re. Clemmons registered the first two double-doubles of her career, going for exactly 21 points and 12 rebounds in a 75-65 victory over Harvard and a 69-61 loss at Yale. Last weekend, she scored a game-high 20 points as Columbia came back from as many as 24 points down in the first half to get within a bucket of Princeton. Prior to her three straight 20-point games against Harvard, Dartmouth and Yale, Clemmons had never scored 20 points through her first 69 collegiate games.
NCAA FRESHMEN LEADERS
• Columbia's first-year class is holding its own among NCAA freshmen. Point guard
Mikayla Markham averages 5.0 assists per game, which is the third-best mark among freshmen. Markham also carries a 2.14 assist/turnover ratio, which is the fourth-best mark among freshmen. Forward
Sienna Durr is No. 2 among freshmen in field goal percentage (.488) and top-10 among freshmen in scoring (14.6).
INSIDE COLUMBIA BASKETBALL PODCAST
Columbia Athletics debuted a brand new podcast featuring the men's and women's basketball programs. New episodes are available weekly on
iTunes and
SoundCloud.
THE IVY LEAGUE ON ESPN+
All home Columbia games and most Ivy League road contests will air on ESPN+ as part of The Ivy League's new partnership with ESPN. ESPN+ is a new, subscription-based service that offers monthly ($4.99) and yearly ($49.99) plans.
Click here to subscribe to ESPN+ and start your free trial!
Click here for frequently asked questions about the Ivy League on ESPN.
#ROADTOIVYMADNESS
• The Ivy League men's and women's basketball tournaments have a new home this season. After the first two years of the tournaments were held at the Palestra in Philadelphia, this year's tournaments will be hosted by Yale at Payne Whitney Gymnasium. The top four men's and women's teams will earn berths to the tournament with the semifinals on Saturday, March 16, and the championships on Sunday, March 17. All six games will be broadcast live on ESPN's networks. For tickets and more information please visit IvyMadness.com.
