By: Matt Sugam

NEW YORK – Columbia sixth-year head coach Megan Griffith '07CC and her women's basketball squad keep checking history off the list.
 
First, win a game against a Power Five opponent on the road – Clemson – for the first time in program history en route to the best start to a season in the 35 years of women's basketball at Columbia. Now, after a 57-46 win over Cornell, the best start in Ivy League history.
 
They're not concerned.
 
"This team isn't really focused on that," Griffith said frankly. "It's great… I'm really proud that we're starting to knock off these records, but our team is so internally focused on what we need to do every day to keep improving that it's just a byproduct of that."
 
In the final game with no fans at Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium due to COVID-19 concerns, Columbia (12-3, 3-0 Ivy League) dominated Cornell (6-9, 1-3 Ivy League) from the opening tip to capture the program's first-ever 3-0 start in conference play.
 
Kitty Henderson led the way with 18 points, including 11 in the third quarter, to help Columbia rebuild its lead to 49-39 going into the fourth. The Aussie was 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-4 beyond the arc. She also had seven rebounds, two steals, and two assists. The talented rookie's halftime adjustment was rudimentary – trust her training.
 
"Taking my open shot and coming to two feet in the paint – my decision making," Henderson said of her third quarter difference. "It's a very simple game when you actually listen to your coaches and do what you're working on in your individual [workouts]. "
 
Kaitlyn Davis dominated the glass, recording a double-double with 18 rebounds and 10 points, while also adding five assists, two steals, and a block.
 
"Everything we've done to this point doesn't matter," Henderson said, adding, "we've shown a bit of Columbia basketball, but it's just been a little bit. We need to show a full game of it."
 
The Lions jumped out to a 16-0 lead with the Big Red not scoring until a free throw midway through the first quarter. Columbia ballooned that lead to 25-1, not allowing a field goal until Cornell banked in a three-pointer with 1:39 to go in the quarter to make it 25-4.
 
"This team has no idea how good they can be," Griffith said, quipping she'd like to earmuff Henderson. "It's just scary coaching this team because we can make a run like that, know that we're going to win the game. They know they're going to win the game and they like to go on cruise control a little bit."
 
Cornell was able to cut the lead to 29-24 by halftime and hit a 3-pointer to start the second half and get within two. It was the closest Cornell would get.
 
"It wasn't pretty," Griffith said. "I thought we had a great start, which was really good to see. I know that's been something that we've been trying to focus on setting the tone earlier starting games with our defense, letting that dictate our offense. So that was really positive to see. Defensively, we held them to two single digit quarters, which is one of our goals and less than 10 offensive rebounds. We did a lot of positive things there. They only scored 46 points, but offensively I just thought that we did not play like ourselves today for a lot of reasons.
 
"We are one of the best teams in our league. There's no doubt about that. Everybody knows that. We know that. It's something we've all come to grips with. So we've got to start playing like that through four quarters. We're still trying to figure a lot of things out."
 
They'll have to do it with a finicky schedule thanks to COVID postponements, like Thursday night's game versus Cornell thanks to a weather delay. Atypical to the conference scheduling, which is historically Friday and Saturday night games.
 
First up, it's a road trip to Providence, Rhode Island to take on Brown this Saturday and try and keep the undefeated conference record intact.
 
"We're going to keep breaking records. That's what this team is going to do," Griffith added. "I'm more concerned with how we show up tomorrow to be ready for Brown."

​For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball, follow @CULionsWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.

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Matt Sugam has been covering sports in the NYC Metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last eight years covering college and professional sports as a stringer for the Associated Press, while also contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He will be covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia's School of Professional Studies. Follow him on Twitter @MattSugam.