NEW YORK – The University of Massachusetts jumped out to a big first-quarter lead and the Columbia women's basketball team was never able to fully recover, falling to the Minutewomen, 87-75, Saturday afternoon from Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
Columbia (8-3) surrendered 31 points and trailed by as many as 20 in the opening 10 minutes. UMass (10-2), which came into the game ranked 12th in the NCAA in rebounding margin, outrebounded the Lions 15-3 in the quarter to build the early advantage and maintained a 20-point cushion at the half.
Just as they have done when faced with a deficit all season, the Lions came storming back. Sophomore
Abbey Hsu scored 19 of Columbia's 21 third-quarter points to begin to turn the tide and the Lions put together a 10-0 run early in the fourth quarter to pull within single digits.
Sienna Durr converted a 3-point play in transition at the 2:46 mark that made it 79-72 and brought the home crowd to its feet.
The first-half deficit ultimately proved to be too much to overcome. The Lions turned it over with a chance to pull the margin to five and the Minutewomen made them pay, bumping their lead back to 10 and riding out the final minute at the free throw line.
"I think the first half was blatantly an issue for us. You can't start a ball game that way and try to claw your way back in," Columbia head coach
Megan Griffith said. "I do think we put ourselves in a position to be back in the game, but it's really hard to give up a 31-point quarter to start. Credit to UMass, I thought they came out confident and dictated pace and tone."
UMass put six in double figures, led by 19 apiece from Sam Breen and Sydney Taylor. Angelique Ngalakulondi recorded a double-double of 13 points and 14 rebounds, which helped the Minutewomen finish the game with a 45-32 advantage on the glass. Eighteen of their rebounds were offensive, leading to 22 second-chance points.
The Lions were led by
Abbey Hsu, who scored 24 points on 6-of-15 from 3-point land. The sophomore hit 5-of-7 from three in the third quarter and finished with a team-high seven rebounds to go with three assists, two steals and a block. Reigning Ivy League Player of the Week Kailyn Davis had 13 points on 5-of-7 from the floor to go with six rebounds, while first-year
Kitty Henderson scored a dozen.
"If she's open and she feels confident, I want her to shoot it every time," said Griffith when asked about Hsu. "She's only a sophomore and she's just going to keep getting better and better. We definitely need some other players to step up and you saw that in the second half, but I thought we were playing too tight in the first half offensively, which goes for everyone."
Columbia's fourth-quarter run started with an and-1 opportunity for Henderson and was followed by another for Davis just 22 seconds later. The Lions got out in transition off a turnover and
Carly Rivera found
Paige Lauder to make it 71-60 with 6:19 remaining.
Henderson cut it to nine on the next possession and then answered a UMass bucket with Columbia's seventh consecutive made field goal at the 5:11 mark, draining a triple from the left wing to make it a ball game, 73-65.
UMass put a stop to the bleeding and got to the free throw line a few times over the next two minutes, but the Lions weren't done yet. After the visitors pushed their lead back to 12, Rivera scored inside and Durr followed with Columbia's third and-1 of the quarter make it a seven-point game.
The Lions may have simply just run out of time.
Columbia will look to bounce back on Monday, when it hosts LIU (0-9) in its final game before breaking for finals. Tip-off from Levien Gymnasium is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET.
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