It was a historic night for Columbia women’s basketball.
The Lions won their first non-Ivy League Tournament postseason game since joining Division I in 1986 Wednesday night by topping Holy Cross at Levien Gym, 80-69, in the first round of the WNIT as All-Ivy first-teamer Abbey Hsu made a lot of history of her own.
Hsu led Columbia in overpowering the Crusaders offensively with 24 points on 8-for-15 shooting, including 5-for-9 from three-point range.
That was good enough for Hsu to set the Ivy League record for three-pointers in a season and a program career record for threes – as a sophomore.
Holy Cross only sank four triples as a team on 20 attempts and never threatened to take the lead again after Columbia went on a 7-0 run over a 4:37 run midway through the fourth quarter after Holy Cross cut its lead to 57-54 with 8:32 to play.
The Lions led 38-33 at the half and last trailed 8-7 with 6:07 to play in the first stanza.
Junior guard Jaida Patrick notched 18 points on 6-for-13 shooting along with five rebounds and two steals, while junior guard/forward Kaitlyn Davis posted 15 points, including 9-for-9 shooting from the charity stripe, seven boards and two swipes of her own.
Holy Cross, the Patriot League’s regular season champion and a squad stronger on defense than offense, was led by senior guard Avery Labarbera with 21 points and a whopping eight steals.
Columbia next faces the winner of Old Dominion at Towson. The latter two teams square off Friday at 7 p.m.