NEW YORK – The Columbia women's basketball team opened up its Ivy League title defense with an eighth straight win, defeating Penn, 79-66, Saturday afternoon from Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
Columbia (10-4, 1-0 Ivy) opened up a double-digit lead in the second quarter and was never really threatened. The Lions led by 14 at the half and pushed their advantage to 20 midway through the third quarter. Penn (8-6, 0-1 Ivy) chipped away to pull within seven late but the Lions put their foot down, scoring the game's final six points to begin 2024 in the win column.
On a day where seven Lions scored at least seven points, it was junior
Cecelia Collins leading the way. Fresh off a career-high 28-point performance on New Year's Eve against Pacific, the transfer from Bucknell scored a game-high 19 to go with a season-high seven assists, five rebounds and a steal. She scored Columbia's first 10 points over the opening four minutes of the second half.
"Honestly, I just think this team is really special," said Collins, who has averaged 23.5 points and 6.0 assists over her last two games. "We're all threats from the outside, the inside, everywhere on the court … My teammates were able to knock them down today."
Abbey Hsu and
Kitty Henderson joined Collins in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively. Henderson tallied six rebounds, four assists and a block while Hsu filled the stat sheet with six boards, two assists a steal and a block. First-year
Fliss Henderson grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, matching her best output of the season, while adding four assists and a bucket of her own.
Nicole Stephens and
Noa Comesaña had eight points apiece off the bench. Stephens helped out on the glass with six rebounds.
"Nicole was enormous for us," head coach
Megan Griffith stated. "She played like a senior and played like, 'I have an Ivy League championship on the line'. I couldn't be more proud of the production of both [Nicole and Kitty], but especially Nicole tonight."
The Quakers were led offensively by Stina Almqvist's 17 points, followed closely behind by freshman Mataya Gayle's 16. Ese Ogbevire scored 12 off the bench. Meanwhile, the Lions limited Jordan Obi to just seven points despite the 6-1 senior skying for a game-high nine rebounds. Obi's efforts on the glass helped Penn outrebound Columbia, 41-38, including 14-10 in offensive rebounds. However, the Lions turned their 10 offensive boards into 16 points, while the visitors managed just two.
Penn opened the game on an 8-2 run before Columbia bounced back to take the lead on successive threes by Collins and
Perri Page. The Lions used a 10-2 run to close out the first quarter with a 22-16 advantage.
Abbey Hsu made two threes in the final 1:19 to swing the momentum into Columbia's favor.
Columbia had its best defensive quarter in the second, holding Penn to just 11 points on 23.5 percent shooting. The Lions closed out the quarter on a 14-4 run over the final 5:48 to take a 41-27 lead at halftime.
With Collins igniting the offense, Columbia continued to dominate into the third quarter. Collins scored 12 of Columbia's 18 points in the period. The Lions took a 20-point lead off a
Riley Weiss steal and bucket at the 4:49 mark. They countered a good shooting quarter from the Quakers by getting to the foul line 10 times and converting seven of them.
Penn's late push in the fourth proved for naught.
Columbia continues a three-game homestand to open up Ivy League play next weekend. The Lions will host Cornell (6-7, 0-1 Ivy) on Saturday, followed by Yale (3-11, 0-1 Ivy) on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Tip-off for both games is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET.
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