Jaida Patrick scored a season-high 20 points and Abbey Hsu set the program record for three pointers in a season, as the Columbia women (18-4, 9-1 Ivy) held off a determined Harvard (12-11, 6-5 Ivy), 74-70, to earn a spot in the 2022 Ivy League Tournament.
The victory not only ensured the Lions their second straight ticket to the league’s postseason party, but it also tied the school record for wins in a Division I season and an Ivy League campaign (2009-10).
For the first time in the calendar year, the Lions welcomed the general public to Levien Gymnasium and 1,000-plus members of the campus community came out to cheer them on in the team’s annual Play4Kay game to support the Kay Yow Foundation’s fight against cancers that affect women.
Like the Crimson men, the women entered the game with a depleted roster. Mackenzie Forbes and Tess Sussman, who combined to average 23.8 points and 8.5 rebounds a night in league play, were not available for coach Kathy Delaney-Smith’s last trip to Morningside Heights.
Columbia jumped out to a 12-6 lead at the first quarter media timeout and kept the six-point advantage with three minutes left in the opening frame, but Harvard battle back. Triples from Lola Mullaney and Elle Stauffer, as well as an old-fashioned three from Elena Rodriguez spurred the Crimson on an 11-2 run to give them a three-point advantage.
With the clock winding down, Kitty Henderson fed Kaitlyn Davis down low for a buzzer-beating layup to make it a 19-18 game in Harvard’s favor after the opening 10 minutes.
After the Crimson stretched the lead to five in the opening two minutes of the second quarter, Hsu nailed a three from the right elbow and fed Patrick for a layup to tie things up at 25 at the next media break.
Down one with a minute left in the half, Patrick crossed into the lane for a short jumper to give the lead back to the Lions. On the next Columbia possession, Hsu hit a three from the left side of key with eleven seconds left to send the home team to the locker room up 35-31.
The triple was Hsu’s 74th of the season, breaking the Columbia record for three-pointers in a season, which was held by Alexa Giuliano since the 2014-15 campaign.
The Lions, who entered the final twenty minutes with a perfect 12-0 record when leading at the half, quickly extended the lead to eight, but the Crimson again battled back with a 7-0 run to make it a 41-40 game.
The teams stayed close throughout the frame and a Lola Mullaney jumper from the lane knotted the game at 52 with just under 30 seconds remaining in the third quarter. Hsu and Patrick ran the same play that worked for Henderson and Davis at the end of the opening 10 minutes, but Patrick was fouled. After hitting both free throws, the Lions held a two-point advantage heading into the final period.
Similar to the third quarter, Columbia opened up a seven-point lead in the first two minutes. This time, however, the Lions held the Crimson in check and stretched its advantage to nine with three and a half minutes left on the clock.
Columbia had a number of chances to put the game away, but its 1-for-5 shooting from the field and 4-for-10 effort from the line the rest of the way gave Harvard one last chance.
After a Harmoni Turner layup made it 72-67 with 1:35 left in regulation, Annie Stritzel intercepted a Carly Rivera pass and fed a driving Turner who missed the mostly uncontested layup. Mullaney grabbed the offensive rebound and missed the putback bunny but managed to hunt down the loose ball. She then found Turner, who threw up an air ball from the left elbow, effectively ending the Crimson’s evening.
The Lions, which have turned the script on the past several years and become a much more defensive-minded team, held the Crimson, one of the nation’s top three point shooting teams, to four of 13 from beyond the arc. Harvard, forced to uncharacteristically play inside the line, were limited to 42% (24-for-57) from two. Meanwhile, Columbia managed to hit 65% (22-for-36) of their two-point attempts.
Despite those shooting numbers, the Crimson were able to stay in the game due to Lions’ late free throw shooting woes and Harvard’s pressure defense. Forcing Columbia into 20 turnovers led to 21 points for the visitors and almost allowed them to pull out the upset.
In addition to her season high 20 points, Patrick finished with eight rebounds, three assists, three blocks and a steal. Things are clicking at just the right time for the junior transfer from Georgetown, making her second straight start for coach Megan Griffith.
“It’s really hard to transfer into a program, especially as a junior it’s really, really hard. And especially with a team that’s very solid culturally,” the coach told Columbia Athletics immediately after the game. “It took her some time to figure that out, now that she has and she has the trust of her teammates and our coaches, her career’s going to take off from here.”
In addition to Patrick, Davis had a hot hand for the winners. After missing most of the second quarter with three quick fouls, she ended with 18 points and six assists. Hsu added 13 points, while Carly Rivera had eight points. Rivera also led the way with 9 assists, in a game where the Lions, as a team, had 22 assists on 27 buckets (81% assist rate).
Turner had 20 points on 35% shooting for Harvard, while Stritzel, playing in place of Forbes, had 17 points on 60% shooting and a game-high 10 rebounds.
With the loss, the Crimson are still looking to secure their invitation to the Ivy dance. Presently sitting in fourth place, one game behind Yale and 1.5 games ahead of Penn, Harvard will travel to Cornell on Saturday and then welcome Princeton to Lavietes Pavilion next weekend.
While the Lions have their date for Ivy Madness set, they still are in the hunt for the league title. After facing off against Dartmouth on Saturday, they welcome league-leading Princeton to town on Wednesday evening. The Tigers, who defeated Columbia 57-39 on Feb. 5, are 10-0 in league play and have a nation-best 36-game conference winning streak.
Griffith, who appreciates her team’s successes, is well aware of the big picture and keeping things in perspective.
“I’m happy that we clinched, but we’ve got bigger business ahead of us,” the pleased coach told Columbia broadcaster Lance Medow following the game.