PHILADELPHIA – The Columbia women's basketball team began its quest for a third straight Ivy League title with a 74-59 victory over Penn on Saturday afternoon at The Palestra.
 
Columbia (10-4, 1-0 Ivy) had four players score in double figures, led by game-highs of 17 points and nine rebounds from Perri Page. The junior from Pittsburgh was 8-of-12 from the floor and also recorded a game-high three steals. Eight of her points came in the fourth quarter to ice away the victory.
 
"Penn rebounds the ball pretty well and in order for us to gain momentum, we need to rebound," said Page postgame. "We just needed to make sure we were crashing and boxing out to make sure we limited their second chances."
 
The Lions outrebounded the Quakers (9-5, 0-1 Ivy) by 11, including 17-11 on the offensive end. Senior Kitty Henderson had eight boards to go with 11 points and a game-high six assists. Susie Rafiu had seven points and six boards, while Cecelia Collins and Riley Weiss chipped in with four rebounds apiece. Weiss tacked on 16 points.
 
For the Quakers, Simone Sawyer scored a team-high 14 points and Katie Collins went for 10 points and nine rebounds. The Lions limited the home team to 37 percent shooting and got out in transition to a 10-0 advantage in fast-break points.
 
Columbia came out hot, scoring the game's first seven points to force Penn head coach Mike McLaughlin to burn an early timeout. They then made it 9-0 on a bucket inside from Rafiu. The Quakers started 0-for-9 from the field before getting in the scoring column after almost five minutes had passed.
 
The momentum kept building on a three-point play from Marija Avlijas and back-to-back triples from Weiss. Her second trey made it 20-5 at the 2:04 mark.
 
"Our first quarter was a really nice start," Columbia head coach Megan Griffith said. "It's no secret that, in the second quarter, we got a little casual and relaxed. Penn is a very capable scoring offensive team -- they have a lot of different threats, and they can play inside-out and space you out … When teams go on 10-plus-point runs, you have to make sure you can steal momentum back somehow … Overall, I'm happy with how we responded in the second half. In conference play, everybody knows you really well. That was a great first game for us to learn a lot."
 
Penn got within nine by the end of the first quarter and used a 12-0 run between quarters to slice the margin to a bucket, 22-20. The Lions pushed back ahead by six only to see the Quakers score the final seven points of the half and steal a one-point lead at the intermission.
 
Page, Avlijas and Mia Broom connected on three separate treys in the opening five minutes of the third quarter to send the Lions back in front. After scoring just six points in the second quarter, they shot 50 percent in the third to score 21 and took a five-point advantage into the fourth.
 
Again, the three-ball was falling early in the fourth as Henderson and Avlijas sank two in a matter of 28 seconds to suddenly put Columbia back in front by a dozen. Penn called from time to stop the bleeding but never got closer than seven the rest of the game.
 
Columbia travels to Cornell (4-10, 0-1 Ivy) for its second Ivy League contest next Saturday. Opening tip at Newman Arena in Ithaca is scheduled for 1 p.m.
 
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