Columbia University
Kansas State
Women’s Basketball Set for Three Challenging Opponents in Cancun
11/26/2025 3:42:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Lions return to the Cancun Challenge for the first time since 2017
PUERTO AVENTURAS, Mexico – The Columbia women's basketball team (3-2) will take on three quality opponents in three days at the 2025 Cancun Challenge. The event is taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, along the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
2025 Cancun Challenge – Mayan Tournament
Thursday, November 27
11 a.m. | #12 North Carolina (5-1) vs. South Dakota State (5-0)
1:30 p.m. | Columbia (3-2) vs. Kansas State (4-3)
Friday, November 28
11 a.m. | Kansas State vs. #12 North Carolina
1:30 p.m. | South Dakota State vs. Columbia
Saturday, November 29
11 a.m. | South Dakota State vs. Kansas State
1:30 p.m. | Columbia vs. #12 North Carolina
BROADCAST INFORMATION
All games at the 2025 Cancun Challenge will be broadcast on Flo College. Jon Gross and Jennifer George will call the action for Columbia's game on Thursday and Friday. Max Kelton and Lexi Ayala will have the call of Saturday's game against North Carolina.
OPENING TIPS
• Columbia is a very different program from the last time it came to Cancun in 2017. At the time, they had never won an Ivy League title nor ever even qualified for a postseason tournament. The 2017 trip resulted in losses to Green Bay, then-No. 7 Mississippi State and then-No. 24 Arizona State. That was head coach Megan Griffith's second season, which resulted in an 8-21 record and 2-12 mark in the Ivy League. Now in her 10th year, Griffith's program is coming off three straight Ivy League Regular Season Championships and back-to-back at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. Griffith's teams have gone a combined 103-29 (.780) since 2021-22.
• Columbia snapped a two-game skid with a 73-60 victory over Binghamton on Monday in New York. All five starters scored in double figures, led by 14 points from senior Susie Rafiu. Rafiu, senior Perri Page and junior Riley Weiss have scored in double figures in all five games so far this season.
• The Lions are one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, averaging 17.8 per game to rank 12th in the NCAA. Perri Page heads the effort with 4.2 offensive boards per game, ranking her 17th nationally.
• Columbia generates 12.8 steals per game, good for 31st nationally. Page also heads that category individually, averaging 3.2 per contest. She is coming off a career-high eight steals in Monday's win over Binghamton. Her eight steals matched the Columbia program record, last accomplished by Jaida Patrick in March of 2022.
• Senior Susie Rafiu tops the Ivy League and ranks No. 43 in the NCAA in field goal percentage at 58.8 percent. Page is third in the Ivies and top 100 nationally at 52.7 percent.
• Riley Weiss (16.2), Perri Page (14.4) and Susie Rafiu (14.2) are Columbia's top scorers. Weiss scored a season-high 27 in Columbia's OT win at Butler on Nov. 7, and went on to be named Ivy League Player of the Week.
CANCUN FUN FACTS
• Columbia, located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, takes on Kansas State, located in the city of Manhattan in Kansas. One of NYC's famous nicknames is The Big Apple. Manhattan, Kansas is affectionately nicknamed The Little Apple as a play on New York City's nickname. Columbia is the only NCAA Division I athletics program located in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.
• Of the 10 women's teams in this year's Cancun Challenge, South Dakota State (1,654), Green Bay (1,617) and Columbia (1,554) are the furthest from Cancun by air miles.
• Columbia head coach Megan Griffith goes head-to-head with her former boss in UNC head coach Courtney Banghart on Saturday. Griffith was on Banghart's staff for four seasons at Princeton (2012-16) before becoming Columbia's head coach. The two faced each other six times at their Ivy League schools before Banghart took the head-coaching job at North Carolina in 2019.
• Monday's game against the 12th-ranked Tar Heels will be Columbia's 16th all-time matchup against an AP Top 25 team. The Lions earned their first AP Top 25 win in program history on Feb. 24, 2024, defeating No. 25 Princeton, 67-65, at Levien Gymnasium in NYC. The Lions are 1-14 all-time against the AP Top 25.
BINGHAMTON POSTGAME NOTES (Nov. 24)
• All five Columbia starters scored in double figures for the first time since March 24, 2023, when the Lions defeated Syracuse in the WNIT -- Hsu (21), Davis (17), Pratt (16), Patrick (13), Henderson (13).
• Perri Page's eight steals tied the Columbia single-game record, last accomplished by Jaida Patrick at Old Dominion on March 24, 2022 in the WNIT. Brittany Simmons was the first Lion to have eight steals in a game, doing so on January 19, 2013, at Cornell.
• Page also tied her career-high in assists with four.
• Marija Avlijas matched her career-highs in points (12), assists (6), field goal attempts (10), 3-pointers made (2) and 3-point attempts (5).
• Riley Weiss passed Alexa Giuliano (2014-17) for fourth on Columbia's all-time list for 3-pointers made. Weiss now has 147 made threes in her career.
• Columbia's 18 steals were its most in a game since going for 23 against Central Penn on January 3, 2016.
BUILDING A MARCH RESUME
• Columbia's non-conference schedule includes nine games against teams that qualified for last year's NCAA Tournament, WBIT or WNIT. Five of those games are against last season's NCAA field, which includes the home opener against Richmond (Nov. 15), all three contests at the Cancun Challenge – Kansas State (Nov. 27), South Dakota State (Nov. 28) and North Carolina (Nov. 29) – as well as a late December trip to Fort Myers to battle Florida Gulf Coast (Dec. 29). The Lions will also host 2025 WBIT competitors Saint Joseph's (Nov. 20) and UTSA (Dec. 20) and travel across the Hudson to renew a rivalry with Seton Hall (Dec. 9). Butler qualified for the 2025 WNIT.
• In total, Columbia's 2025-26 schedule includes eight games against NET Top 50 teams and 12 games against NET Top 100 teams from a year ago.
HALFTIME WINNING STREAK
• Columbia has won 31 consecutive games when leading at halftime. The Lions have won their first three such games so far this season, all 20 games when leading at the half in 2024-25, and their final eight such games in 2023-24. Columbia's last loss with a halftime lead came at Princeton on January 20, 2024, taking a 37-33 lead into the locker rooms but coming up short, 80-65.
INTERNATIONAL LIONS
• According to research performed by NCAA member institution communication staffs, Columbia is one of just 12 programs in the country with nine or more international players on its roster. Of those schools, only Columbia, Washington State, South Florida and San Francisco have nine or more countries represented on their respective rosters. Columbia has two players from Spain, and one each from Australia, Canada, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Serbia and the United Kingdom. Six of Columbia's 15 players are from the United States.
PRESEASON NUGGETS
• Columbia begins its 41st varsity season and 39th competing at the NCAA Div. I level as a member of the Ivy League. The program's first season competing as the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium was 1984-85, followed by its first season competing in both the Ivy League and NCAA Div. I in 1986-87. The 2020-21 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Columbia returns nine of its 12 players from the 2024-25 season, including three of its five starters. The Lions return 62.9 percent of their scoring and 70.1 percent of their rebounding. Eight of the nine returners played in at least 20 of Columbia's 31 games last season.
• Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins are Columbia's biggest losses from last season. Both graduated last May. Henderson was a four-year member of the program, while Collins was a two-year member who transferred in as a junior from Bucknell. Last season, the duo combined for 825 points, 357 rebounds and a staggering 288 assists. Both were All-Ivy League selections.
• Columbia's top returning scorer is junior Riley Weiss. Last season, she scored 553 points and averaged 17.8 per game, ranking top 10 in Columbia single-season history in both categories. Weiss also knocked down 96 triples last year, good for third-best in team history, with an 87.5% free throw percentage, which ranked second.
• The Lions have five newcomers to the roster this year, welcoming four first-years and one junior transfer, Hilke Feldrappe, who played her first two collegiate seasons at Missouri.
FOLLOW THE LIONS
For the latest on the Columbia women's basketball, follow @CULionsWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, or on the web at GoColumbiaLions.com.
