VILLANOVA, Pa. – The Columbia women's basketball team erased a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit but dropped a heartbreaker in the final moments against Villanova, 68-67, Saturday afternoon at Finneran Pavilion.
 
Trailing by six with under a minute to go, Kitty Henderson scored, Columbia forced a turnover, and Henderson scored again. The sequence suddenly made it a two-point game with 50 seconds remaining.
 
After Villanova traveled, the Lions got the ball back with a chance to level the score. They went inside to Susie Rafiu, who bodied up her defender and finished an easy lay-in to square things up at 67.
 
Denae Carter got fouled with 1.7 left but only hit 1-of-2, allowing the Lions a chance to pull off the victory. Columbia called for time to advance the ball and sophomore Riley Weiss was fouled before it was inbounded. That sent Columbia's best free-throw shooter to the line with a chance to tie or take the lead. Unfortunately, Weiss missed both attempts, Villanova rebounded and time expired.
 
"Do I think Riley makes those free throws 95 percent of the time? I do, but this was a new experience for her," ninth-year Columbia head coach Megan Griffith said. "I said to her [in the locker room] 'When was the last time you had 3,000 people screaming in your face when you're on the free throw line?' … It's never happened to her … I told her that she didn't lose that game for us. We lost it by putting ourselves in that position.
 
"Again, was it hard to lose this game, 100 percent, especially when you don't play well and put yourself in this position, but Denise [Dillion] did a great job and I thought Villanova played very confident basketball."
 
Columbia's struggles at the free throw line were the difference. The Lions ended the game 8-of-19 (.421), while Villanova was 8-for-11 (.727). Rafiu scored a career-high 16 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter. The junior from England was 7-of-13 from the field and also had five rebounds. Weiss (13), Cecelia Collins (12) and Kitty Henderson (11) rounded out Columbia's double-figure scorers. Henderson dished out a game-high six assists.
 
Villanova (2-1) was led by a game-high 17 points off the bench from Maddie Burke. All 17 of them came in the first half, going 5-for-7 from deep and helping the Wildcats shoot 60 percent in the opening 20 minutes. Burke added 10 rebounds for the double-double. Jasmine Bascoe had 15 points and Carter scored 11.
 
Nova's hot-shooting first half included 30 second-quarter points. They connected at 80 percent from the field in that period, including 5-for-6 from beyond the arc, to build a 45-38 lead at halftime. Weiss had all 13 of her points in the half to help the Lions stay within striking distance.
 
The Wildcats tried to pull away in the third quarter but the Lions kept hanging around. Boscoe opened up the largest lead of the game, 57-44, late in the third, but Collins answered immediately with a trey to bring it back to 10.
 
The Lions played the defense they needed to play in the fourth quarter in order to win but their offense could not generate enough firepower. Rafiu scored at the 8:45 mark but it wasn't until 3:24 remained that the next points would go up on the board. Perri Page hit an and-1 and converted at the line to dwindle the deficit to seven.
 
Rafiu's game-tying basket closed out a 12-2 run over the final three minutes. Free throws, which were a problem all game, ultimately doomed the Lions.
 
Columbia returns home to prepare to take on Pacific (2-1) Wednesday night at 7 p.m. The Lions then leave for the Bahamas and the 2024 Battle4Atlantis on Thursday morning, where they will play three games in three days starting on Saturday.
 
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