PRINCETON, N.J. – The Columbia women's basketball team fell behind early against the lone unbeaten in the Ivy League and was never able to fully recover, falling to Princeton, 77-55, Saturday night at Jadwin Gym.
 
Columbia (11-8, 2-4 Ivy) dug itself a 10-1 hole in the opening minutes and trailed Princeton (17-1, 5-0 Ivy) by 13 at the end of the first quarter. First-year Kaitlyn Davis hit a trey to make it a 10-point game less than a minute into the second, but the Lions were held to just two points the rest of the half and went down 20 at the break. A hard-fought fourth quarter brought them within as little as 19 before the final horn sounded.
 
"It's hard, you've got to be on in these games," head coach Megan Griffith said. "Our second half was so much better. We only lost by two in the second half and we won the fourth quarter. That's what we challenged them with in the timeout … We're not the team we were four years ago when we got here. I think they got that message."
 
The Lions outscored Princeton 19-13 in the fourth quarter and put up 55 points on a team that entered the weekend leading the nation in scoring defense at 49.3 points per game. The Tigers were coming off a stellar defensive performance Friday night when they held Cornell to just 29 points.
 
"Anybody can win on any given night," Griffith went on to say. "And why not us? Why not us versus Penn? It doesn't matter who is on the other side of the floor. Anything is possible if we can stick to a game plan and be disciplined. I think they saw, even though it wasn't perfect in the second half, the way that we battled – we only had six turnovers, we shot 14 free throws even though we didn't make them, we had 14 more field goal attempts. That's the team that we want to be – win that possession battle."
 
First-year Abbey Hsu scored 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting and sophomore Sienna Durr scored 10 with the help of six makes from the charity stripe. Senior Janiya Clemmons chipped in nine points and gathered a team-high six boards.
 
The Lions outrebounded Princeton, 41-35, and turned 13 offensive rebounds into a 12-9 advantage in second-chance points. However, the Tigers shot 10-of-24 from the perimeter (41.7 pct.) and limited their opponent to just over 30 percent shooting (17-56) on the night.
 
Two-time Ivy League Player of the Year Bella Alarie led Princeton with a game-high 24 points on 9-of-15 from the floor, adding five boards, four assists, three blocks and a steal in 34 minutes.
 
"When we did what we're supposed to do with [Alarie] and we were early and we were doubling, we gave her problems," Griffith commented. "You just have to be mature enough and disciplined enough to stick to a game plan over the course of 40 minutes and with a young team. Unfortunately, what we've been seeing as this year has progressed is that's not always the case for us."
 
The Lions return home Feb. 14-15 for Alumni Weekend. Columbia will host Dartmouth Friday at 7 p.m., followed by a 5 p.m. tip against Harvard on Saturday.

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.