By: Matt Sugam - Contributor for GoColumbiaLions.com
NEW YORK — Columbia women's basketball is learning what it's like to go from the hunter to the hunted.
Kaitlyn Davis had 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists, while
Hannah Pratt added 13 points and six rebounds but Columbia's comeback attempts fell short and Princeton triumphed 74-56. With the result, Columbia (18-3, 7-2 Ivy) slides back into a tie for first place in the Ivy League with Princeton (16-5, 7-2) and Harvard (14-7, 7-2).
The marquee matchup brought in the first sellout in program history with a standing-room-only crowd of 2,653 fans packed into Schiller Court on Levien Gymnasium. They made their presence felt from the opening tip.
"They know who we are, they know the work that we put in and how we've been succeeding all season long to this point,"
Abbey Hsu said. "So they just want to support something like this and I know even after tonight they're going to be back at our next home game supporting. We have great fans. Win or lose, they're going to be there."
While Columbia controls its destiny to the first Ivy League title in school history, the Tigers made sure it wouldn't happen easily.
Hsu ended with 10 points and seven rebounds, while
Kitty Henderson added 10 points, three rebounds, three assists, and two steals. An opening 3-pointer by Pratt got the crowd but Princeton went on a 10-0 run and never trailed again.
"We started the way we wanted to, Hannah hitting a three the way we drew it up, but when the game didn't go our way I think we did fold a little bit there." Columbia head coach
Megan Griffith '07CC said.
Davis scored on a putback with 4:36 left in the quarter, converting the old-fashioned 3-point play to cut the deficit to 10-6.
"We were just on our heels a little bit," Griffith continued. "The game for us, the way we started – we missed a couple of open layups and turned the ball over a couple of times."
Pratt hit a 3-pointer in transition off a pass from Davis with 2:37 left in the first quarter as Columbia trailed 12-11. But it's the closest the Lions would get, as the Tigers were up 21-11 after one quarter.
After trailing by as many as 16 in the second quarter,
Sienna Durr provided a spark off the bench with an old-fashioned 3-point play to make it 34-21 with 1:35 left in the half.
Davis got to the foul line to get things going for Columbia as the Lions looked to overcome a 15-point deficit. However, the Tigers kept attacking.
"They knew they had to win this game and I think that's how they played," Griffith said. "Not that we didn't know that. I think you go into every game the same way, but they had to win this game. We've earned that from everybody. We've just got to wear it better, move forward, stick together and stick to the game plan."
Princeton led by as many as 21 in the third quarter but the Lions began roaring back. Hsu had scored five straight points to cut the deficit to a dozen with under two minutes to go in the third quarter.
"I don't like to finish the game feeling like I didn't play hard and that was a time where I was like, you know what, we just got to step it up," Hsu said. "I wish you could go back after a loss and play that way the whole way through, but as I said, stuff that we're learning … next time we play any team, I'm starting that way from tip to finish."
Columbia headed into the fourth quarter trailing 50-38. A dozen is the closest the Lions would get, struggling to score, shooting just 26 percent from the field.
"I have no doubt we'll see them again and I'm really looking forward to it. And that's the thing we got to focus on right now," Griffith said. "We are an NCAA Tournament team. I absolutely believe that with everything I have. We just have to stick to our game plan moving forward, and that starts with next weekend."
The Lions will look to rebound when they host Yale on Saturday, Feb. 11 at 12 p.m. The game will air locally on SNY and nationally on
ESPN+.
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Matt Sugam '23 SPS has been covering sports in the NY metropolitan area for over a decade. He has spent the last nine 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 covering Lions Athletics for gocolumbialions.com while pursuing an M.S. in Strategic Communication at Columbia SPS. Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Visit his website at www.mattsugam.com.
