By: Matt Sugam

NEW YORK - Columbia women's basketball's best season in program history came to a heartbreaking end, but provided a springboard into a bright future.

Kitty Henderson had 18 points and seven assists and Hannah Pratt came off the bench to record a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds in a 78-75 loss to Seton Hall Monday night in the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) Quarterfinals. 

An announced crowd of 2,072 packed into Schiller Court at Levien Gym to witness it. The game did not disappoint, as it featured 19 lead changes and nine ties.

"It was an exciting night of basketball for a lot of people that were watching," Columbia coach Megan Griffith '07CC said. "But I don't think it was our best tonight and unfortunately Seton Hall got the best of us over 40 minutes."

Hsu hit a step back 3-pointer with 1:12 to go to give Columbia the 73-72 lead. A pair of free throws would give Seton Hall the lead back with 57.5 left. On Columbia's next possession, Pratt found Henderson on the backdoor cut for an easy layup to give the Lions a 75-74 advantage. 

Seton Hall went back to the well, as Lauren Park-Lane drove baseline and was fouled with 16.4 remaining. She hit another pair of free throws, going 14-for-14 at the foul line to finish off the night with a game-high 29 points.

Columbia turned it over with a chance to retake the lead and Seton Hall hit two more at the foul line to go up three. The Lions would get one more look off in the final seconds to try and send it to overtime, but Hannah Pratt's shot was no good and the horn sounded.

Hsu and Kaitlyn Davis had 15 points each.

A back-and-forth first quarter ended with the teams tied at 21 before Seton Hall went into the break with a 39-35 advantage.

Then, in the third quarter, the Lions pounced on the Pirates. Henderson found Davis, who drove to the lane to tie the game at 43 on a layup at 7:12 before Jaida Patrick hit the front end of a free throw to give Columbia the 44-43 lead.

Henderson found Davis on a nifty pass for an easy layup to cap an 11-2 run to start the half and cause veteran Seton Hall coach Tony Bozello to call timeout with his team trailing 48-43 midway through the third quarter. The Pirates fought back with a 13-2 run to take a 56-50 lead into the fourth quarter.

Kitty Henderson opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back threes to tie it right back up at 56 with 8:48 to go. Pratt hit a 3-pointer on back-to-back possessions to give Columbia a 64-62 lead.

The Lions were 12-of-28 from beyond the arc. A vast difference from their last game, where they overcame 0-for-20 from 3-point land to win the game.

Seton Hall would retake the lead on the 3-pointer on the following possession to lead to a wild finish in the final 6:14 for what's been an unforgettable season.

"To have an atmosphere like that, it was really cool," Henderson said. "The buzz on campus was so cool -- everyone saying good luck, everyone saying good game after each game. I think it's really cool to see how much we mean to the campus and all our friends. It's a shame we didn't get it done for them tonight, but I think it's really good for women's basketball and only up from here."

There's no reason it shouldn't be for Columbia. A talented roster will lose just its lone senior, Mikayla Markham, to graduation.

"It's just making us hungry for more because we've never done a lot of things that we've done this season that we've never done before," Henderson said. "We only want to get better from here. We don't want to be in the WNIT next year, we want to be in the NCAA Tournament. We want to win the Ivy League Championship."

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

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