NEW YORK – Less than 24 hours after senior
Kitty Henderson recorded the second triple-double in Columbia women's basketball history, senior classmate
Cecelia Collins came up with the third.
Collins went for 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists Saturday afternoon, and Columbia secured the No. 1 seed for this year's
Ivy League Tournament with a convincing, 77-49, victory over Yale. With the win, the Lions (21-5, 12-1 Ivy) have also guaranteed no less than a share of their third straight regular-season title. They'll go for their first outright championship in next Saturday's home finale.
"I love playing with Kitty – she's one of the best players to ever play here," Collins told Lance Medow in her
postgame interview. "I think we just motivate each other to be better every single day. Kitty, she's our motor. I'm just trying to have her back as much as possible and she does the same for me."
Head coach
Megan Griffith praised her senior duo in her
postgame press conference, saying "Anytime one player, let alone two, can affect and impact the game as much as these two do is really special. We are totally being led by our seniors right now. It's been an honor to coach them up to this point in their careers, but we know we have so much unfinished business. They would be the first to say that too, that this is a product of all of the work they've put in up to this point. The job is not done."
With the No. 1 seed, Columbia will play either Penn or Brown in the first semifinal of the Ivy League Tournament on Friday, March 14, at 4:30 p.m. The Lions know how important that is to their tournament-title chances.
"I think it's really critical," Collins told Medow. "That was one of our goals coming in, but we want to be outright champs. We've got to take care of business next week and that's the first goal on our list, outright champs. The last two seasons, we weren't outright. We don't want to share the title again. We've got to clean up some things this week and get ready for Cornell."
As for Saturday's game, sophomore
Riley Weiss led all players with 23 points. She scored the opening seven and had half of the Lions' 18 points in the first quarter. The Long Island native went on to finish the game 9-for-17 from the floor and 3-of-8 from long range.
The Lions scored on their first eight possessions of the second quarter to put the game to bed. Collins and Henderson each had old-fashioned three-point plays during the stretch. Henderson's boosted the lead to 35-15 with 4:33 left in the half.
Columbia crushed Yale (4-22, 3-10 Ivy) on the glass, 55-20, grabbing 27 offensive rebounds that led to 20 second-chance points. Along with Collins' 10, Henderson,
Perri Page and
Blau Tor had eight apiece.
The lead swelled to as many as 23 in the third quarter and 33 in the fourth quarter. Collins secured the triple-double with her 10th rebound at the 7:31 mark of the fourth before being substituted out and given a standing ovation from the home faithful.
Columbia will play for the outright Ivy League Regular Season Championship on Saturday, March 8, hosting Cornell at 2 p.m. It will be Senior Day for Collins and Henderson.
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