HANOVER, N.H. – For the first time in its 34 years competing as a Div. I program, the Columbia women's basketball team is headed to the postseason.
On a night where they led by as many as 26, the Lions handled Dartmouth, 62-50, earning a program-record sixth straight Ivy League win and clinching their spot in the 2020 Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament presented by TIAA.
"This is the standard that we have," said Columbia's fourth-year head coach Megan Griffith, whose team improved to 17-8 with an 8-4 record in the Ivy League. "We want to win championships here and I'm really proud of them coming together tonight, battling through some adversity and everybody chipping in. That's what having a team is all about and hopefully we can keep this momentum going."
First-year Abbey Hsu and sophomore Hannah Pratt each posted a double-double to lead the way. Hsu scored a game-high 17 points and matched a career-high of 12 rebounds. Pratt, a night after scoring a career-high 17, polished off a fantastic weekend by going for 13 points and a career-high 12 boards.
"We've been building this program from the ground up," said senior captain Janiya Clemmons, who recorded nine points, four rebounds and a team-high four assists in the win. "It started my freshman year and we finally are doing some of the things we talked about day one. We always talk about championships and now we have an opportunity to go to the Ivy League Tournament and make it happen."
The 2020 Ivy League Women's Basketball Tournament presented by TIAA will be held Friday and Saturday, March 13-14, at Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The top four teams in the final standings qualify for the tournament and will play in the semifinals on Friday, followed by the championship game on Saturday.
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With one weekend left in the regular season, Columbia (17-8, 8-4 Ivy) is tied with Penn (18-7, 8-4 Ivy) for second place in the league standings. Yale (7-5 Ivy) is a game back in fourth, two games ahead of fifth-place Harvard (5-7 Ivy). Princeton (24-1, 12-0 Ivy) has locked away the regular season title and No. 1 seed in the tournament
Columbia's 17 overall wins and eight Ivy triumphs both mark the second-most in the program's Div. I era. Only the 2009-10 team, led by Hall of Famer Judie Lomax '10BC, has won more, going 18-10 with a 9-5 mark in the league.
Friday night's game couldn't have started much better for the Lions. Despite not having sophomores Sienna Durr and Mikayla Markham in the lineup due to injuries they suffered Friday night against Harvard, Columbia jumped out to a 17-2 lead. The Lions scored the first eight points and held Dartmouth to 0-for-6 shooting with four turnovers over the first five minutes.
Things only got better for Columbia in the second quarter. Abbey Hsu wowed the crowd with a turnaround three right at the end of the shot clock just 47 seconds into the new period. The lead grew to 19 points, 33-14, courtesy of a 7-0 run that included a 3-ball from Madison Hardy and a short-range jumper from Kailtyn Davis.
Columbia's offense stalled for most of the third quarter until a key triple from Madison Pack snapped them out of it. Dartmouth held the Lions without a field goal for nearly six minutes but only managed to make up seven points over that span. Pack's bomb from the top of the arc at the 2:28 mark ignited a 10-0 Columbia run to end the quarter, giving the visitors a 21-point lead.
The run continued into the fourth and a 3-ball by Abbey Hsu gave the Lions their largest lead, 56-30. Columbia led by 20 with less than two minutes remaining before Dartmouth scored eight straight to make the final margin a dozen.
Columbia returns home for the final weekend of the regular season, hosting No. 21/23 Princeton Friday night at 7 p.m., followed by Penn in the finale on Saturday at 5 p.m.
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