LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Columbia women's basketball team's historic 2022-23 season ended with a hard-fought, 66-59, loss to Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday in the WNIT Championship Game. Columbia concludes its best campaign in program history 28-6 overall.
The Lions put on a championship-worthy performance in front of over 11,000 raucous fans inside one of the historic halls of college basketball. They led 16-15 after the first quarter, battled through 11 lead changes in the first half and went on an 8-0 run to retake a five-point lead in the first 70 seconds of the second half.
Then, the shots just wouldn't fall. Columbia fought through a grueling six minutes and 56 seconds without a point. Kansas (25-11) took advantage, rolling off a 15-0 run to grab a 46-36 lead.
"We just didn't hit shots when we needed to," head coach
Megan Griffith said. "I think that's the fatigue of a WNIT run and Kansas made more plays then we did when they needed to. I think it was a battle today and I think this only showed why we should have been playing in March Madness in my opinion."
Kitty Henderson finally put an end to the drought on a three with 1:56 left in the period. KU answered with a triple on the other end and led by 10 heading to the final 10 minutes.
Columbia never quit, cutting the lead to six with the first four points of the fourth quarter. The Jayhawks took their largest lead of the night, 57-45, with 6:02 to go, but the Lions answered the bell with four points and applied pressure late. A steal by Henderson and a layup by
Jaida Patrick made it a 59-53 game with 1:29 still on the clock.
Time simply ran out. Hsu banked in a triple to bring it back to six and
Kaitlyn Davis followed on the next possession to make it a five-point game. However, Kansas converted at the free-throw line, finishing the game 20-of-24, to close out the victory.
"[Kansas] put together a great environment. Huge credit to them for this win," Griffith added. "This is hard. It's hard to end your season this way when you've battled so hard and you've come so far. We have such a special group of seven seniors. But again, I'm just really grateful that we had this opportunity.
This is the second consecutive season the Lions posted a program record for wins. The last two years have seen them go a combined 53-13 (.803), which included winning the program's first Ivy League Championship in its 37th year competing as a member of the league.
"I have two classes of freshmen and sophomores that all they know is winning 27 games a season and playing late into March or April," Griffith went on to say. "For us, this just shows me the best is yet to come for this program. When I got here in 2016, we were one of the worst teams in the country. Tonight, in 2023, on April 1, I'm really proud of my staff for all the hard work we put in to get to this point."
Abbey Hsu scored a team-high 19 points in defeat, matching Kansas's Zakiyah Franklin for the most on the night.
Kaitlyn Davis went for 13 points, five rebounds, two assists, a block and steal in her Columbia swan song.
Kitty Henderson and
Hannah Pratt added nine points apiece.
"What I was most proud of was
Abbey Hsu. I thought she was unflappable the whole game," said Griffith on her top returner for next year. "That's the kind of kid she was today and for her to make that step, that's exactly why I know our program is in great hands right now. To have that kid coming back, Kitty, who makes big play after big play for us … Did our leaders and our seniors get us here, and are they resilient? Absolutely, but I thought our young players really stepped up today and that's what I was really proud to see."
Hsu and Davis were each named to the WNIT All-Tournament Team.
Kansas was led by the effort of Taiyanna Jackson, who scored 17 points and was unstoppable on the glass with a game-high 21 rebounds. Chandler Prater added 11 more boards, helping KU to a 50-41 edge in rebounding and a 17-12 advantage in second-chance points.
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