By: Matt Sugam, contributions from GoColumbiaLions.com

NEW YORK – After a historic season in 2021-22 that ended with a trip to the Ivy League Tournament Title game and WNIT Quarterfinals, coach Megan Griffith felt like her veteran team was resting on its laurels from last March.
 
Kaitlyn Davis had a career-high 24 points and added nine rebounds, while Hannah Pratt added 15 points and six rebounds, as Columbia fell to SEC-foe Vanderbilt, 74-63, on Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
 
"Thank you, Vanderbilt, for waking us up. Delaware did that too and we just ended up winning that game," said Griffith in her postgame press conference. "This team is playing and thinking like they are the team they were in March last year. We're not that team yet. We have to work to get back to that level."
 
After a back-and-forth third quarter, the Lions trailed the Commodores, 58-54, heading into the final stanza. Davis would injure her left hand early in the fourth quarter with her team trailing 60-54 and return with her team trailing 67-54 with 5:00 left in the game, the culmination of a 14-0 Vanderbilt run.
 
"Fourth quarter, we just got shell-shocked," Griffith said.
 
Davis would cut the lead to 67-60 with 3:13 to go on a pair of free throws. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Lions would get.
 
Columbia raced out to a 15-4 lead that caused Vanderbilt head coach Shea Ralph to call for time. Bolstered by 11 opening-quarter points from Davis, the Lions shot 8-of-14 and were up 22-14 heading to the second.
  Jaida Patrick rolled her left ankle and limped off the court in the second quarter but wound up returning before halftime. Vanderbilt (3-0) used that time to begin fighting back and took a 37-36 lead. Patrick dished it to Nicole Stephens for the buzzer-beating triple just before halftime to give Columbia (2-1) a 39-37 lead at the break.
 
The Lions went back ahead by as many as eight in the third quarter thanks in part to nine more points by Davis. Her driving layup at the 5:58 mark had Columbia on top, 47-39.
 
Vanderbilt scored the next nine points to retake the lead and then rolled off a separate 14-0 run that decided the outcome. Columbia went scoreless over the final 2:12 of the third quarter and the opening 5:43 of the fourth quarter.
 
"We had a great first five minutes of the game but completely lost our composure defensively [in the second half].
 
Columbia travels to South Orange on Thursday to take on Seton Hall in a rematch of last year's WNIT Quarterfinals. Tip-off at Walsh Gymnasium 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased here.
 
For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball, follow @CULionsWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.

Matt Sugam '23 SPS  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 and contributing to The New York Times, USA Today Network, NJ.com, and SNY.tv. He's been 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 or visit his website at www.mattsugam.com