NEW YORK – Columbia's offensive firepower was too much for visiting Brown, sinking 13 threes to defeat the Bears, 90-73, Friday night in Ivy League women's basketball action from Schiller Court at Levien Gymnasium.
With the win, Columbia (16-5, 7-1 Ivy) extends its home winning streak to a program-record 12 consecutive games. The Lions are 13-1 under their own roof – the lone blemish came in a four-point loss to then-No. 22 Duke in early November. They outscore opponents at Levien Gym by nearly 20 points per game.
"We play with pride every day and Coach [Griffith] makes sure that we all show up every day," said senior
Nicole Stephens in her
postgame interview with Lance Medow. "This community, they bring it every game, and you don't see that in women's sports. It's amazing."
Stephens scored a career-high 17 points off the bench, 10 of which came in the third quarter when her team needed it most. Brown (13-8, 4-4 Ivy), which trailed by as many as 13 in the first half, tied things up for the first time all night in the third quarter. There would be three ties but never a lead change, thanks in part to Stephens, who scored seven points during a 15-0 run that put the Lions back in front, 66-51.
The lead was never in jeopardy in the fourth quarter.
"Down the stretch, we got some stops that we needed to," said
Cecelia Collins, who scored 21 points with seven rebounds and six assists on a night when Columbia outrebounded Brown by 30. "That was definitely a part of the game plan – try and crash and get some offensive rebounds. I think we work on that a lot and we were able to get some tonight."
The final box score showed Columbia with a staggering 54-24 advantage on the glass. They turned 28 offensive rebounds into 26 second-chance points.
Not to be forgotten in all of that was the performance of
Abbey Hsu, who wound up with a team-high 23 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. She tacked on four assists and two steals, also hitting 4-of-6 from long range.
Brown's Kyla Jones scored a game-high 27 points (11-17 FG) to go with five assists. She was followed closely by Grace Arnolie's 24 points. However, the Brown bench contributed just three points while the Lions' went for 28.
Columbia struck first thanks to a rebound and putback from Hsu, who accounted for Columbia's first five points of the night after drilling a triple just 30 seconds later. After
Fliss Henderson knocked down a three midway through the quarter, Stephens checked in off the bench and joined the party with a three of her own to force Brown to call a timeout. The Lions opened up the contest 3-for-5 from deep.
The timeout was futile.
Kitty Henderson made a great save off a missed shot falling out of bounds that resulted in Collins knocking down her first triple of the night as the shot clock expired. Collins would follow that up with back-to-back layups to give Columbia a 20-8 lead and force another Brown timeout with still 2:52 to play in the first quarter.
Hsu was fouled on a three-pointer with just one-tenth of a second remaining in the opening frame and knocked down all three free throws to give the Lions a 10-point lead heading into the second quarter.
The Lions cooled down slightly as the second quarter went on. They turned it over three times in the opening three minutes, which allowed the Bears to claw their way back into the game. An and-1 by Jones with eight seconds left in the half made it a six-point game, 38-32, at the break.
Susie Rafiu collected her first two points of the game to open the second half and extend the Lions' lead back to eight, but Brown would respond with a 12-4 run to storm all the way back and tie the game at 44-44. After both teams exchanged a pair of buckets, Collins knocked down her third triple of the contest to put Columbia back in front.
It sparked what would be a 15-0 Columbia run, as the Lions' turned up the intensity on defense and nearly held the Bears scoreless for the final five minutes of the third quarter.
Perri Page's first triple of the night and a layup by Stephens to cap a 10-point quarter for the senior guard, catapulted the Lions into the fourth quarter with a 66-53 lead.
Stephens followed up in the fourth with a stick-back to give Columbia its largest lead at the time of 17 points, while also cementing a new career-high of 15 points for Ohio native. She would extend that career-high to 17 points with a layup a few possessions later. Hsu put the finishing touches on the victory with back-to-back threes and eight consecutive points with just about two minutes left to play.
Columbia hits the road for an Ivy League back-to-back next weekend, facing Dartmouth on Friday night at 6 p.m. and Harvard on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game against the Crimson will air nationally on ESPNU.
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