CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Columbia women's basketball team (21-5, 12-2 Ivy) will compete in its first postseason game in 36 years when the Lions take on Yale (16-10, 9-5 Ivy) in the Ivy League Tournament semifinals Friday night. Tip-off from Lavietes Pavilion in Cambridge is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.
THE BASICS
Columbia is the No. 2 seed in the Ivy League Tournament after setting program records with 21 wins and 12 Ivy League wins during the regular season. The team's Ivy League win total stands alone as the most in school history, three wins more than the 2009-10 team that went 9-5. Its 21 overall wins stand alone as the Div. I record and match the 1985-86 Lions that went 21-6, winning the New York State AIWA Championships and advancing to the NCAA Div. III Regionals.
Columbia swept Yale (16-10, 9-5 Ivy) during the regular season for the first time since 2011. The Lions came back from as many as 12 points down in the second half to defeat the Bulldogs in this year's Ivy opener, 65-55, in New York.
Carly Rivera led the Lions with 14 points in the contest. More than a month later, the two sides met in New Haven with Columbia using a 13-0 second-half run to pull away, 65-57.
Jaida Patrick led the way with 19 points while
Abbey Hsu had 18.
Princeton (22-4, 14-0 Ivy) and Harvard (13-13, 7-7 Ivy) will square off in Friday's other semifinal at 4:30 p.m. The winner of that semifinal will take on the winner between Columbia and Yale in the 2022 Ivy League Tournament Championship Game on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The winner will receive the Ivy League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
TICKETS
Ticket packages and single-game tickets to the Ivy League Basketball Tournaments, presented by TIAA, can be purchased by
clicking here. Please visit
IvyMadness.com for more information
GAME COVERAGE
Friday's semifinal against Yale will be broadcast on
ESPN+. Elise Woodward and Dan Hughes will have the call. The championship game will be televised nationally on ESPNEWS. Fans can access the ESPNEWS broadcast online via
ESPN.com or the
ESPN app.
Columbia athletics will also be carrying an audio-only broadcast from Lavietes Pavilion for Friday night's semifinal. Lance Medow will have the call on the
Columbia Lions Radio Network.
Live stats will be provided by
StatBroadcast. Live updates will be posted to the women's basketball team's Twitter page (
@CULionsWBB).
5 THINGS TO KNOW:
1. A LONG TIME COMING
• Columbia will be playing its first postseason game in 36 years. The program's last postseason game came on March 1, 1986 in the NCAA Div. III Regionals. The Lions enter the Ivy League Tournament with the most wins in a season in program history. Their current wins total (21) is their best since becoming a Div. I program (1986-87) and matches the 1985-86 team that went 21-6, winning the New York State AIWA Championships and advancing to the NCAA Div. III Regionals.
2. HISTORY IN THE MAKING
• The 2021-22 season has seen Columbia set many firsts and numerous school records, beginning at the very start of the season when they started 5-0 in the first time. Columbia's other notable season accomplishments include:
- Defeating an ACC team on the road (Clemson, Nov. 13)
- Starting Ivy League play 7-0 (previous best was 2-0)
- Winning a program record eight consecutive games (Dec. 13 - Feb. 4)
- Winning the most Ivy League games in program history (12)
- Winning the most games overall in the program's Div. I era (21)
- Tying for the most overall wins in program history (1985-86)
- Defeating Penn for the first time since 2011
- Sweeping Penn for the first time since 2010
- Sweeping Cornell for the first time since 2010
- Sweeping Yale for the first time since 2011
3. HSU-TING THE THREE
•
Abbey Hsu enters the game with 156 made 3-pointers in her career, which ranks third in Columbia women's basketball history. The career record is 166, which belongs to Melissa Shafer (2008-12).
• Hsu broke Alexa Giuliano's single-season record for threes with her 74th of the season on Feb. 18 against Harvard. Hsu now has 91 threes entering the Ivy Tournament, which ties for third in Ivy League history. The record belongs to Katie Benzan, who sank 99 at Harvard during the 2017-18 season.
Single-Season Record: Made 3-Pointers (Ivy League History)
1. Katie Benzan (Harvard) (99, 1991-92)
2. Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth) (97, 1998-99)
3. Courtney Banghart (Dartmouth) (91, 1999-00)
Abbey Hsu (Columbia) (91, 2021-22)
5. Sandi Bittler (Princeton) (89, 1989-90)
4. ALL-IVY DUO
•
Kaitlyn Davis and
Abbey Hsu were named to the All-Ivy League teams on Wednesday. Davis earned her first All-Ivy nod and was selected to the First Team. Hsu earned her second straight selection (2019-20) to the Second Team.
• Davis became the first Lion to be named to the All-Ivy First Team since Camille Zimmerman in 2017-18. Zimmerman was a three-time All-Ivy selection and two-time First Team honoree. Hsu became the eighth Lion in program history to earn multiple selections to the First or Second Team, a list that also includes
Sienna Durr.
5. SCOUTING YALE
• The Bulldogs put a wrap on their second-straight 9-5 Ivy League campaign with wins over Cornell, 56-40, and Brown, 64-49, to close out the regular season. Like the Lions, Yale also qualified for the Ivy Tournament in 2020 before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic canceled all of the NCAA's postseason slate.
• Unanimous First Team All-Ivy League selection Camilla Emsbo leads the squad. Emsbo, a 6-5 junior, averaged a double-double of 14.3 points and 10.0 rebounds during the regular season, ranking No. 6 in scoring and No, 2 in rebounding. She also tallied 2.3 blocks per game, a mark that ranks Top 25 in the NCAA. Sophomore guard Jenna Clark averaged 11.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and an Ivy League-best 6.1 assists per game. Clark ranks No. 11 in the NCAA in assists per game and Top 25 in total assists (158).
• Yale prides itself defensively, allowing 56.4 points per game, a mark which ranks No. 2 in the Ivy League and Top 50 in the NCAA. They are also Top 50 nationally in field goal defense (.367).
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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.
