NEW YORK – Winners of six straight and off to their first 5-0 Ivy League start, the Columbia women's basketball team (14-3, 5-0 Ivy) begins a stretch of four straight on the road when it visits Dartmouth (1-16, 0-5 Ivy). Tip-off on Saturday from Leede Arena is set for 2 p.m.ET.
GAME COVERAGE
Fans can watch Saturday's game live on
ESPN+. Live stats will be available through
DartmouthSports.com. Live updates will also be posted to the women's basketball team's Twitter page (
@CULionsWBB).
5 THINGS TO KNOW:
1. WINNING WAYS
• The Lions are in the midst of their best season in program history. Columbia's 14-3 overall record is a program best through 17 games. The Lions are also 5-0 in the Ivy League for the first time. Columbia's best Div. I season came in 2009-10, when they went 18-10 with a 9-5 Ivy mark to finish third in the league standings. The program's best season at any level came in 1985-86, going 21-6 and qualifying for the NCAA Div. III Regional.
• Columbia's current six-game winning streak matches its longest since rolling off six straight Ivy games in February of 2020. A win over Dartmouth on Saturday would tie the longest in the program's Div. I era. The program's last seven-game winning streak came in the 2016-17 non-conference season, which was
Megan Griffith's first season as head coach. The only other seven-game winning streak came in the program's first season playing Div. I basketball (1986-87).
2. PUTTING PENN IN THE PAST
• Columbia put an end to an 18-game series losing streak by defeating Penn, 61-56, on Wednesday. The Lions trailed by as many as 10 in the second half but used a 20-6 run through the third and fourth quarters. They took the lead for the first time since 2-0 on a 3-ball by
Abbey Hsu to start the fourth quarter and never trailed again. It was the program's first victory over the Quakers since 2011.
3. NEVER OUT OF IT
• Columbia has proven to be an incredibly resilient team this season. Heading into Saturday, the Lions have won seven times when entering the fourth quarter tied or trailing -- six of those occasions have come when trailing (Clemson, Georgetown, Rider, Delaware, Yale and Penn). Adding to that, the Lions have overcome a double-digit second-half deficit to win three times this season (Clemson, Yale, Penn). Prior to this season, the last time the Lions came back from 10 points or more in the second half to win was against Saint Francis (PA) on November of 2016. The last time they did it in an Ivy League game was Feb. 2, 2008 against Brown.
4. DEFENSIVE PROWESS
• Columbia has found a groove on the defensive end of late. In each of its last four games, the Lions have limited their opponent to less than 30 percent shooting. They have also held their opponent to less than 60 points in three of those four games, giving up an average of 54.5 points over that stretch. Columbia has put up impressive rebounding numbers over that time as well, grabbing 50 or more rebounds in every game and outrebounding their opponent by a combined margin of 216-156 (+15.0 per game).
5. SCOUTING DARTMOUTH
• Dartmouth (1-16, 0-5 Ivy) is in a rebuilding phase under their new head coach, Adrienna Shibles. Shibles ame to New Hampshire in May of 2021 from Bowdoin College, where she spent the previous 13 years as the Polar Bears head coach. Since taking over the Bowdoin program prior to the 2008-09 season, she led the squad to a record of 281-67 (.807) and qualified for the NCAA Tournament 11 times, reaching the Sweet Sixteen eight times (including five of the last six seasons) and the Final Four twice.
• The Big Green enter Saturday on a six-game losing streak, which includes the team's first five Ivy League games. They played at Princeton and Yale in a Saturday-Sunday back-to-back last weekend, falling to the Tigers, 78-35, and the following day to the Bulldogs, 57-43. Mia Curtis leads the scoring effort at 7.6 points per game.
• The Lions are hoping this is the year they can finally turn the tide on Penn. The Quakers lead the all-time series, 51-18, and have won 18 straight dating back to 2012. Columbia's last series victory came at home on Feb. 25, 2011, defeating Penn by a final of 61-54.
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MORNINGSIDE HOOPS
The newly branded Morningside Hoops podcast is back for a fourth season. Formerly known as Inside Columbia Basketball, the podcast features weekly interviews with coaches and members of the men's and women's basketball programs. New episodes are available weekly on SoundCloud, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
To listen to this week's episode,
click here.
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For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball, follow @CULionsWBB on
Twitter,
Instagram and
Facebook, or on the web at
GoColumbiaLions.com.
