ITHACA, N.Y. – Columbia started the second half on a 12-0 run and completely ran away from Cornell, earning a 69-44 victory in Ivy League women's basketball action on Saturday at Newman Arena.
One of the best rebounding teams in the country, Columbia (11-4, 2-0 Ivy) played to a 41-26 advantage on the glass. The Lions upped their rebounding margin to a combined +80 over the last four games. Eighteen of Columbia's rebounds were on the offensive end, blasting Cornell 24-5 in second-chance points. They also ended the game with a 22-2 advantage in points off turnovers, forcing the Big Red into 22 miscues.
All that said, Cornell (4-11, 0-2 Ivy) hung around in the first half but did not have the firepower to sustain it in the second. After opening with the first dozen points, Columbia turned a single-digit halftime lead into a 41-20 ball game. The Lions increased that lead to as many as 26 in the third quarter alone, completing a 22-5 run on a second-chance triple from
Riley Weiss to double-up the Big Red.
"Cornell was pretty scrappy today in terms of just making catches difficult and pushing us off our catch points," said Columbia head coach
Megan Griffith, who coached her 100th career Ivy League game and improved to 39-5 against league competition over the last four seasons. "It was good for us to see that – we haven't really seen that in a couple of games. We didn't adjust as well as I would have liked to earlier in the game, especially in the first half. I thought we had a really good third quarter, which I was not surprised by coming out of halftime. [However], we're still trying to work towards playing a full 40 minutes."
Cecelia Collins scored a game-high 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including 2-for-3 from long range. Weiss was 4-for-10 from downtown on her way to 16 points. The sophomore from Long Island also matched her career-high with a game-high eight rebounds.
Kitty Henderson had 15 points (7-11 FG) and a game-high 10 rebounds, notching her third double-double of the season. She and Collins each recorded a game-high four steals, whlie Henderson and
Perri Page led the Lions with four assists apiece.
Rachel Kaus led Cornell with 13 points, eight of which came in the second half, and six rebounds. Paige Engels scored 10.
The Lions led by as many as 32 points, 61-29, midway through the fourth quarter. The win was Columbia's seventh straight against Cornell, matching seven straight from 1988-91 for its longest in series history.
The Lions complete a six-game road swing on Saturday at Yale (1-14, 0-2 Ivy) before returning home for the first time in 47 days to host Princeton on MLK Day. Saturday's opening tip against the Bulldogs is slated for 2 p.m. ET.
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