NEW YORK – The Columbia women's basketball team never trailed on its way to an 82-70 Ivy League victory over Harvard on Friday night. The team's annual Pride Game brought in a crowd of 2,123 to Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
With the win, Columbia (14-5, 5-1) moves into sole possession of second place in the Ivy League standings. The meeting was the first of the year against Harvard (11-8, 4-2 Ivy). The two sides battled four times last season, including twice in the postseason.
After jumping ahead by 11 in the first quarter but going into the halftime break tied at 42, Columbia retook the momentum at the start of the second half. Harvard hung on and was within six points with less than three minutes to go, but the Lions went on a 6-0 burst and held the Crimson scoreless over the final 2:48 to put the game away.
"I was really happy with the balanced scoring effort that we had," said head coach
Megan Griffith with the opening remarks of the
postgame press conference. "I think we shared the ball well and we kept our turnovers down. That was a big key for us, was ball security in this game … Defensively, we really locked in the last four-to-five minutes of the game … [We had some] game-winning plays."
Cecelia Collins led the Lions with a team-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting. She also grabbed three rebounds, dished out six assists and got one block.
Abbey Hsu, who tied Camille Zimmerman's program record of 112 starts, put up 19 points, including four threes, as well as six rebounds and two assists.
Kitty Henderson scored 18 points on an efficient 7-of-9 from the field, going 2-of-3 beyond the arc. Sister
Fliss Henderson scored a career-high 13 points, tied her career-high of eight rebounds and handed out four assists.
"We said it was obviously super important after the loss at Princeton to get going again," Collins stated. "We had that 10-game win streak and that kept us rolling. I think we just need to continue to build on this momentum as we head into February and March."
The Lions dominated in the paint, scoring 46 inside compared to Harvard's 28, along with a 14-9 advantage in second-chance points. They grabbed 34 rebounds to Harvard's 28 and totaled three blocks against the Crimson's zero.
For Harvard, Katie Krupa scored a game-high 23 points (9-13 FG). Harmoni Turner (15) and Lola Mullaney (14) rounded out the players in double figures.
The pace of the first five minutes was lightning-quick from the tip.
Kitty Henderson scored the first points just four seconds into the festivities off a well-executed tip play. Minutes later, she found her sister open on the perimeter, where the younger cashed in her first triple. Harvard called for time to catch its breath, trailing 15-6 at the 6:38 mark.
Columbia ended the first quarter on a 7-0 run. Hsu scored the last points of the frame when she made her second 3-pointer of the night with 25 seconds left to put Columbia up 28-17. The Lions made 60 percent (12-20) of their field goals while Harvard's Krupa and Turner scored all but two of their team's 17 points.
Neither team showed any signs of slowing down the pace in the second quarter. Columbia took its largest lead at 33-22 when Collins found Hsu for her third triple of the night with 8:26 to go. However, Turner and Krupa continued to put pressure on Columbia's defense. The Lions turned over the ball seven times, which Harvard took advantage of with an 11-2 difference in points off turnovers. By the end of the first half, Harvard had tied up the game 42-42.
"We've noticed in previous games and even in [tonight's] game that as soon as things might not be going our way, we have a tendency to pull apart," first-year
Fliss Henderson said in the press conference. "But we've learned that as soon as we play together and really celebrate one another, we're so much better and the game just flows so much more for us."
The Lions left the locker room on a mission, taking the lead in the third quarter and never trailing throughout. A pull-up jumper from Collins 25 seconds into the half put the Lions in front. Late in the period, Rafiu snatched an offensive rebound and converted an and-1 off the putback. Columbia's defense zeroed in on Harvard's two leading scorers, whose only contributions in the third quarter came from Turner's three made free throws.
Leading by 10 heading to the fourth, the Lions proved to be too much to overcome. They hit 5-of-10 from the field to close things out, turning five Harvard turnovers into six points over the final 10 minutes.
Columbia completes a home back-to-back Saturday against Dartmouth (6-12, 0-6 Ivy) at 5 p.m. The game will serve as Barnard Night, which celebrates the 40-year history of the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium.
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