NEW YORK – Columbia wrapped up the regular season in defeat, as the Lions were held to a season-low scoring output in a defensive struggle with visiting Penn, 51-36, Saturday evening at Jonathan D. Schiller Court inside Levien Gymnasium.
 
Columbia (17-10, 8-6 Ivy) will head to next weekend's Ivy League Tournament presented by TIAA as the No. 4 seed. The Lions will take on top-seeded Princeton (26-1, 14-0 Ivy) in the opening game on Friday at 4:30 p.m. Penn (20-7, 10-4 Ivy) earned the No. 2 seed and will take on third-seeded Yale (19-8, 9-5 Ivy) in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The winners of each semifinal will play in the championship game Saturday at 5 p.m.
 
"I wanted our season to end playing the two best teams in our league. That is exactly what I would want," head coach Megan Griffith said. "It's just a little sobering to think we didn't show up the way we wanted to. It's hard, however It is great that we get another chance. For me, I'd rather roll out the ball right now and play somebody. Unfortunately, we don't get to do that … but it's great that we get to turn around and play for something. It's just hard to end your regular season like that at home."
 
Prior to Saturday's game, Columbia celebrated the career of two-year captain Janiya Clemmons. The senior from Accokeek, Maryland has played in 106 games in a Lions uniform and recorded 837 points, 430 rebounds, 185 assists and 102 steals. Saturday night marked the 89th consecutive game she has played in and her 77th career start.
 
"We've been building this program for four years now. It feels good to see some of that blossom on the court," said Clemmons when asked about how far the program has come in her four years. "We know we have a lot of work to do but the reason we got here is because we knew nobody was going to give us anything. We've got to get back to that mentality. If we want it we have to go out there and give it everything we have. We're not just going to tip the ball and have everything go in our favor."
 
Clemmons matched Penn's Kayla Padilla with a game-high 12 points while also gathering seven rebounds. She got her senior night off to a hot start with back-to-back threes in the first quarter and accounted for eight of Columbia's 14 points after 10 minutes. She and first-year Kaitlyn Davis combined for 18 of the Lions' 21 points at the half.
 
Penn took a 35-21 lead into the locker rooms. Junior Eleah Parker was a force on the glass, gathering six offensive rebounds to help the visitors to 16 second-chance points in the first 20 minutes. Parker went on to finish the night with nine points, 19 rebounds and seven blocks.
 
The two sides combined for just 11 points through the third quarter with Penn scoring seven of them. The Lions made things interesting by cutting the margin to 12 off a Kaitlyn Davis putback with 4:48 to go and then got within 11 on a Madison Hardy triple at the 2:23 mark. However, that would be the final points Columbia tallied before the final horn sounded.
 
"Honestly, it's hard when you have a very young team that is still trying to figure out who they are and they face a lot of adversity," Griffith added. "At the same time, everybody has adversity. My whole postgame talk to the team was reminding them that every team and everyone around us has their own stuff they are dealing with. It's about who handles it the best and the excuse can't be that we haven't been there. I keep trying to help them understand that if you want to go somewhere you haven't been that it's going to be unfamiliar. You've got to make choices and sacrifices to put yourself in the best position and show up."
 
Tickets to the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments presented by TIAA can be purchased by visiting IvyMadness.com.
 
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.