PARADISE ISLAND, The Bahamas – The Columbia women's basketball team begins its journey at the 2024 Battle 4 Atlantis on Saturday when it meets Indiana for the first time. Opening tip from Imperial Arena at Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET.

TICKETS & ACCOMODATIONS
• Fans can click here to find information, including tickets and accommodation packages, at Atlantis Paradise Island.

GAME COVERAGE
• FloCollege will provide the live broadcasts for the 2024 Women's Battle 4 Atlantis. Monday's championship game will be televised live on ESPN2.
 
• Fans can also track live statistics for all games of the Battle 4 Atlantis on both StatBroadcast and the ESPN app. Live updates will also be posted to the Columbia women's basketball team's Twitter account (@CULionsWBB).
 
OPENING TIPS
• Sophomore transfer Marija Avlijas won the 2023 Women's Battle 4 Atlantis with Ole Miss. She played 27 minutes in the championship game against Michigan, scoring a career-high 11 points (5-10 FG) with a rebound, three assists, two steals and a block. Ole Miss defeated Michigan, 60-49.
 
• The Lions have outscored their first five opponents by a combined 92 points. Columbia's first nine games of the season are against teams that qualified for a 2024 postseason tournament (NCAA, WBIT, WNIT).
 
• Senior Kitty Henderson leads the Ivy League and ranks top 25 in the NCAA in total assists (29) and assists per game (5.8). She has 373 career assists, which currently ties her for fifth in program history with Columbia head coach Megan Griffith. Henderson scored her 1,000th career point in Wednesday's win against Pacific, becoming the 15th player in program history to reach the milestone.
 
• Columbia owns 14 wins in its last 30 games against power-conference opponents (ACC, BIG EAST, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC). Columbia earned its first BIG EAST win against Providence in Coach Griffith's first season in 2016-17. They earned their first ACC win over Boston College in the 2017-18 season.
 
• Saturday will mark just Columbia's third all-time meeting against a Big Ten opponent. The previous two matchups were decided by a combined 10 points. The Lions fell to Iowa, 72-69, at the 2009 Nevada Nugget Classic. Their most recent Big Ten game came at Illinois, falling to the Illini, 76-69, in November of 2018.

PACIFIC POSTGAME NOTES
• Columbia's 14 made threes tied for fifth-most in a game in team history.
• Columbia's 26 assists were its most in a game since last year at Pacific, Dec. 28, 2023.
• Columbia has now had 16 steals in two separate games this season. Prior to this year, the last time the Lions had that many steals in a game was two seasons ago at Dartmouth (Feb. 18, 2023 – W, 80-37).
• Pacific's 29 turnovers were the most by an opponent since Dartmouth committed 30 in an 80-37 Columbia victory on Feb. 18, 2023.
• Marija Avlijas made her first start as a Lion and her third collegiate start (two at Ole Miss).
• Cecelia Collins's career-high five steals were the most in a game by a Lion since Abbey Hsu had the same amount at San Francisco (W, 74-67 – Dec. 28, 2023).
• Susie Rafiu had a career-high six assists.
• Emily Montes recorded the first made 3-point field goal of her career.
• Blau Tor had a career-high six points and played a career-high 12 minutes.
 
KITTY JOINS 1K CLUB
• Kitty Henderson became the 15th player in program history to eclipse 1,000 career points as part of Columbia's 84-50 victory over Pacific (Nov. 20).
• Henderson scored her 1,000th point on a three-point play with 4.1 seconds remaining in the third quarter. She then made the free throw for her 1,0001st point.
• Cecelia Collins is the only other active player on the roster with 1,000 career points, scoring 688 of them between her freshman and sophomore years at Bucknell, followed by 410 in her first year at Columbia.
 
EYING REVENGE IN THE BAHAMAS
• Columbia fell to Georgia (Nov. 20) and Florida (Nov. 22) at the 2023 Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Championship, The tournament was held at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, Bahamas.
• The Lions led Georgia. 47-46, heading to the fourth quarter but went scoreless for the opening 5:31 of the final period. They never got back within double figures, falling to the Bulldogs, 73-56.
• Columbia played Florida to 12 ties and 15 lead changes. They entered the fourth quarter trailing by seven but opened the period on an 11-2 run to regain the lead. They led by as many as six, 77-71 with 3:20 remaining. Florida hit a go-ahead shot with 4.9 seconds left, the Lions answered with a bucket with 1.3 seconds left, but Florida won it on a buzzer-beater trey, 83-81.
 
SETTING THE STANDARD
• Columbia has evolved into an Ivy League powerhouse, coming off back-to-back regular-season championships, its first two Ivy League championships in program history.
 
• The Lions earned their first NCAA Tournament appearance last season, receiving a 12 seed as an at-large bid, just the second at-large selection in women's basketball in Ivy League history (2016). They played in the First Four against Vanderbilt, falling in a close contest, 72-68.
 
• Columbia is coming off three straight 20-win seasons, posting overall records of 25-7 (2021-22), 28-6 (2022-23) and 23-7 (2023-24). The 2021-22 team earned the program's first bid to a postseason tournament in its Division I history. The following year, the Lions advanced all the way to the WNIT Championship Game against Kansas. Last season, they earned their first selection to the Big Dance. Prior to 2021, the Lions had never had a 20-win season in their Division I history (1986-pres.).
 
THE FIELD
• Columbia's first-round opponent, Indiana (2-2), advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2024 NCAA Tournament, falling in a close contest to eventual national champion South Carolina, 79-75. The Hoosiers have already suffered defeat at the hands of the Ivy League this year, falling to Harvard in overtime, 72-68, on November 7 in Bloomington, Indiana. They also lost their next game against in-state rival Butler, 56-46, but bounced back in a big way by defeating then-No. 23/24 Stanford in Bloomington, 79-66. Five Hoosiers average double figures scoring, led by Yarden Garzon's team-high 16.0 points per game. She is shooting 50 percent from three (12-24) through four games. Lilly Meister averages 11.5 points and a team-best 7.3 rebounds.
 
• Columbia's next opponent will be either No. 18/17 Baylor (3-1) or Southern Miss (2-2). The Bears and Golden Eagles play each other on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Columbia has never played Baylor and is 1-0 against Southern Miss, defeating the Golden Eagles, 48-41, on December 3, 2004 in Mississippi.
 
• Monday's opponent will be either Ball State (4-0), No. 16/15 North Carolina (3-1), Texas A&M (3-2) or Villanova (3-1).
 
FOLLOW THE LIONS
For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball, follow @CULionsWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.