PRINCETON, N.J. – Columbia women's basketball went back and forth with Princeton for the better part of 33 minutes on Saturday at Jadwin Gymnasium. The Tigers proved too much after that, using a 16-2 run over the course of seven minutes to win the battle of the Ivy League unbeatens, 80-65.
Columbia (12-5, 3-1 Ivy) was led by a 21-point performance from senior
Abbey Hsu, who was the lone starter to score in double figures. First-year
Riley Weiss splashed in 12 points off the bench and junior point guard
Kitty Henderson dished out a game-high seven assists.
"What we're more so disappointed about is that we didn't play our basketball. There was a game plan and we didn't follow it," said Hsu during the
postgame press conference, who moved into seventh on the Ivy League's all-time scoring list (1,879). "We're not disappointed that we lost to Princeton – we're always going to try and beat whoever is on the other side – but we want to follow our game plan and haven't done that. Quite honestly, we haven't really done that the last couple of games but … we got away with it. That translated to this game and into a lot of crucial moments that cost us the game."
The Lions delivered the opening salvo to go up 7-3 on a triple by
Perri Page. Princeton (14-3, 4-0 Ivy) answered with a 10-2 run to lead by three at the end of the quarter. They extended that margin to as many as nine midway through the second quarter but the Lions went on a tear to retake the advantage by halftime. It began with back-to-back buckets by
Cecelia Collins before Weiss was left all alone in transition and nailed a trey to give Columbia the lead. A triple by
Nicole Stephens in the waning seconds of the half made it a 37-33 game in favor of the Lions at the break.
Columbia outscored Princeton 15-4 over the final 2:45 of the first half and were outrebounding the Tigers, 14-12. All nine Lions in the box score at the time had found the scoring column in what was the second-most points allowed by Princeton in the opening half of a game this season – only No. 16 Indiana had scored more (41).
Princeton responded with a 10-2 run over the first part of the second half to bounce back on top. After Columbia had shot 9-of-11 (.808) in the second quarter, the Tigers went 11-of-15 (.733) in the third. Princeton's starting five combined to score all 23 points during those 10 minutes to put the home team ahead by five heading to the fourth.
The two sides went shot for shot in the opening few minutes of the fourth with a pull-up by Hsu cutting the margin to 60-57 with 8:17 to go. That's when the Lions went cold, turning it over three times and going 1-for-7 from the field over a seven-minute stretch. Even after Hsu's triple at the 1:06 mark, Columbia was still down by 14.
"They made some runs and we didn't respond, but you have to expect that from a team like [Princeton]," head coach
Megan Griffith said. "I just don't think we strung together stops at all in this game. We track something called turkeys, which is three stops in a row, and we only had one of those tonight. You're not going to beat anybody, let alone a team like this, with one [turkey]."
For the Tigers, the starting five combined to score 76 of their 80 points. Skye Belker and Madison St. Rose each matched Hsu with a game-high 21 points apiece. Ellie Mitchell posted a double-double of 14 points and 15 rebounds, seven on the offensive end, as Princeton outdid the Lions, 16-3, in second-chance opportunities.
Columbia will regroup and look to bounce back next Saturday when it visits Penn (10-7, 2-2 Ivy). Opening tip at the Palestra is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
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