TOWSON, Md. – The Columbia women's basketball team went on a 14-0 first-quarter run to race ahead and never trailed again on its way to a win over Towson, 73-53, Sunday afternoon at TU Arena.
Columbia (9-4) grabbed a season-high 60 rebounds, its most in a game since January of 2022, bullying Towson (2-9) around on the glass all game. The Lions grabbed 28 offensive boards, another season-high, including five apiece from
Perri Page and
Kitty Henderson. Page tied her career-high and led all players with 12 rebounds total. Henderson posted her second double-double of the season with 16 points and 10 boards.
Susie Rafiu tallied a career-high nine rebounds and
Riley Weiss grabbed a career-high eight. Weiss also paced all players with a game-high 22 points.
"I feel like my role on the team is to be a really good rebounder and helping us get those putback points," said Page, who has collected a dozen rebounds four times this season. "It's a mindset as well. I've been doing a lot of visualization and understanding what my team needs in order for us to get these big wins … If I rebound, everything else will come."
The Lions also turned 17 Towson turnovers into 26 points. Even though Columbia only turned it over one fewer time, the Tigers scored just eight points off turnovers, never breaking off a huge run.
"Towson is a team that can go on big runs when they start to turn you over," Columbia head coach
Megan Griffith said. "All week, we just wanted to make sure we understood the value of taking care of the ball but also responding after mistakes. We want to be a response-driven team instead of an outcome-driven team … I was happy to see that."
Columbia didn't have its best shooting day, connecting at 37 percent, but took 18 more shots than Towson, including eight more threes. They started 0-for-6 from beyond the arc before
Riley Weiss connected at the 2:45 mark of the first quarter. That was the early stages of a 14-0 run that turned an 8-6 Towson lead into a 20-8 game in favor of Columbia. Another Weiss trey closed the run with just under a minute left in the period.
The Lions led by 13 after Maria Arrebola beat the first-quarter buzzer with a triple from the corner. Towson trimmed the deficit down to seven late in the half but the Lions scored the final few points to take a double-digit lead into the break.
Weiss and Henderson combined for 24 of the Lions' 32 first-half points. Anasia Staton paced Towson with six on her way to a team-high 19.
Towson put Columbia in the bonus with 4:45 left in the third quarter. The Lions wound up going 6-for-8 from the foul line in the period and used a 9-0 run late to take its largest to that point, 52-37.
Marija Avlijas assisted a second-chance bucket from Henderson and capped the run with a steal for a breakaway layup.
Broom connected on back-to-back threes early in the fourth quarter which helped to all but put the game away. The Lions led by as many as 23.
Columbia has the week to prepare for its Ivy League opener on Saturday at Penn (8-3). Opening tip at The Palestra is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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