NEW YORK – The Columbia women's basketball team rolled to its fifth straight win, blowing past Wagner, 79-50, Sunday afternoon from Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium. The Lions (7-4) never trailed and led the game for good after the 8:20 mark of the first quarter.
Abbey Hsu posted a game-high 25 points, going 10-of-16 from the floor with five rebounds, two steals, an assist and a block in 26 minutes of action. Cecelia Collins added 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting to go with five boards and a pair of assists. Kitty Henderson hauled in a career-high 11 rebounds to go with six points and four assists. Her younger sister, Fliss, tallied a game- and career-high seven assists. Susie Rafiu notched a career-high 10 points.
"I'm so proud of them. They learn so fast," said Hsu about Rafiu and Fliss Henderson during her postgame interview with Lance Medow. "Fliss being a freshman – she doesn't play like a freshman or act like a freshman. She acts like an upperclassman. Susie has just grown so much from last season. It's fun to watch them grow."
Columbia forced 19 turnovers, leading to 21 points, and posted 24 offensive rebounds for 19 second-chance points. The Seahawks (2-6) shot just 32.1 percent from the field and were outrebounded 50-28 in the contest.
"That was kind of a goal for us in these last two games – let's use our size advantage and let's really make sure that we become an in-out team and not just an out team," head coach Megan Griffith said. "This team is extremely offensively talented but we are trying to make sure we can play through our post a little bit more, whoever that is, guards or forwards alike. It's good to see that we are executing. I'd like to see a couple more of those shots go in and us to execute a little bit sharper, but it was good today to see them grind out this win."
Columbia's first three buckets all came on second chances before Henderson found Hsu on a fast break to give the Lions an 8-2 lead, forcing a quick timeout by Wagner with 6:37 left in the opening frame. Wagner's Paige Lyons did all she could to keep her team in the game, netting seven straight points for the Seahawks to cut the deficit to 15-11 with 2:23 remaining in the quarter. However, Columbia posted a 7-2 run to close things out to hold a nine-point cushion after 10 minutes of action.
The Lions shot 64 percent in the second quarter to build a big halftime lead. Back-to-back hoops by Rafiu put the Lions ahead, 28-17, at the 6:27 mark of the second quarter. Columbia pulled away with a 9-0 run, six coming from Collins, and took a 47-28 advantage into the locker room.
In the third, the Lions held Wagner to 4-of-11 shooting and forced six turnovers to make it a 27-point game heading into the final period. Columbia coasted through the fourth quarter, leading by no less than 24 for the remainder of the game.
After a break for exams, Columbia will head out to California. The Lions return to action 18 days from now on Thursday, December 28, to take on San Francisco. They'll close out the calendar year on the West Coast three days later against Pacific.
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