The Columbia women’s basketball team toppled No. 25 Princeton, 67-65, before a sold out and raucous crowd at Levien Gymnasium on Senior Day. The win pulled Columbia (19-5, 10-1 Ivy) into a tie with Princeton (20-4, 10-1) for first place in the Ivy League with three games remaining for each team in the regular season. Both teams have already clinched spots in the Ivy League tournament, which will be held in three weeks at Columbia.
The Lions were led by their senior superstar guard, Abbey Hsu, who tallied a game high 26 points on 8-for-14 shooting, including 4-for-7 from behind the arc. It was a special day for Hsu and Columbia basketball as Hsu became just the fourth player in Ivy League history to reach the 2,000-point plateau.
As expected, this contest was a rock fight in the trenches with a series of momentum swings, just as it was when these two teams last met on January 20 at Jadwin Gym.
In that game, won by Princeton, 80-65, it was the Tigers who started fast, then faded in the second quarter and trailed at half, only to rally in the second half. In their first meeting, Columbia played well enough to pull out a road win, but couldn’t make shots in the fourth quarter when the game hung in the balance.
On Saturday in Manhattan, Columbia flipped the script. The Lions were the team who came out fast, outscoring the Tigers 8-4 by the time of the first TV timeout and 19-13 by the end of the first quarter.
The game started ominously for Princeton when Madison St. Rose, the Tigers’ outstanding sophomore guard and second-leading scorer, picked up her second foul less than three minutes into the game on a controversial blocking call. Replays showed that St. Rose had clearly established a position against her opponent near the center court line. The call sent Princeton coach Carla Berube into a fit on the sideline, but ultimately Berube was forced to sit St. Rose for the remainder of the first quarter and most of the rest of the first half.
After the game, Columbia coach Megan Griffith noted the significance of the moment, reflecting that it allowed the Lions to keep St. Rose “at bay” during a critical stretch of the game. St. Rose had burned the Lions for 21 points in their January matchup. She finished Saturday’s game with only 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting.
In the second quarter, the Tigers came roaring back behind the play of freshman guard Ashley Chea. On Princeton’s first possession, Chea hit a step back jumper in the paint to make it 19-15. A moment later, she let loose a high-arching, corner three that swished the nets to tie the game at 22.
The Tigers continued to build momentum when St. Rose, reinserted into the game for the first time since early in the first quarter, cut to her right, dribbled through traffic and laid the ball off the glass to give Princeton its first lead, 26-24, with 5:07 to play in the first half.
The Tigers built their lead to four, 28-24, when Princeton senior co-captain, Ellie Mitchell, ripped down an offensive rebound, which led to a Chet Nweke layup. Mitchell hauled in 18 rebounds on the day, including eight offensive boards. It was the fourth time this season Mitchell has grabbed 18 or more rebounds in a game.
The first half ended with the Tigers clinging to a one-point lead, 30-29.
In the third quarter, Columbia seized control of the game. The first possession for each team told the story of the quarter. Nweke threw the ball away for a turnover to get things started for the Tigers while Columbia’s Cecelia Collins executed a perfect backdoor pass to Kitty Henderson for an easy layup to put Columbia back on top. Henderson, a 5-foot-10 junior from Sydney, finished the game with 11 points and a team high 5 assists, while Collins, a 6-foot junior from Scranton, tallied 14 for the Lions.
With 6:28 to play in the third quarter, Hsu came around on a curl move to receive a pass from Henderson. The senior from Parkland, Fla. swished the trey to put Columbia on top, 37-34. It was the kind of moment that forges an MVP season. The Lions would never trail again.
In the fourth quarter, Princeton fought back like a defending champion. Back-to-back layups by Nweke brought the Tigers to within eight, 61-53. The senior from Woodbine, Md. scored a team-high 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Then, with the Tigers’ backs against the wall, St. Rose hit consecutive treys to make it a two possession game, 66-61, with 4:17 to go.
The score remained frozen for an agonizing sequence of missed shots by both teams, but especially by Princeton as Mitchell, St. Rose, Nweke, and Kaitlyn Chen all missed layups. Finally, Mitchell got one to go to make it a one-possession game, 66-63, with 1:46 to go.
The Tigers caught a break when Columbia relaxed in the backcourt, failing to get the ball over the timeline in the allotted 10 seconds. The untimely turnover, one of 14 on the day for Columbia, gave Princeton the ball with 1:13 to play and a chance to tie or take the lead.
The Tigers went for a kill shot when St. Rose attempted a long three early in the shot clock. It didn’t go, but Skye Belker, a talented freshman who has started every game for Princeton this season, grabbed the rebound and found Chen who missed another layup. Finally, Nweke grabbed yet another rebound and put it home for two to make it a one-point game, 66-65, with under a minute to go.
Trailing by one, the Tigers needed a stop, but a foul by Nweke on Fliss Henderson, sister of Katie, sent the freshman from Australia to the line for two shots. She made one of two and Mitchell rebounded to give Princeton a chance to tie or win the game with 24 seconds to go.
Berube called a timeout to set up a play.
“We knew the ball was going to Chen,” remarked Griffith in the postgame press conference.
Indeed, it did. The reigning Ivy League Player of the Year dribbled down the clock and then with just seven ticks left, she penetrated the paint for a contested jumper. As was the case for most of the day for Chen, the shot was short.
Nweke appeared to gain control of the rebound and tried to go up for a put-back, but she was stripped (or fouled depending on your perspective), and the game ended with a historic Columbia win. It was the first time the Lions had beaten Princeton at Levien in 16 years.
Did Chen wait too long to make her move on Princeton’s final play? Griffith thought so: “She waited to score and that helped us.”
Griffith may have been right. Even if Nweke had managed to get a shot off after the Chen miss, it may not have counted.
Interviewed after the game by the ESPN+ broadcast crew, Hsu, selected the Player of the Game, put the win in perspective.
“We came together and put together a full 40 minutes,” Hsu said. “The job’s not finished yet. We’re not satisfied. But it’s a big win.”
Hsu’s performance puts her in the driver’s seat for winning honors as the Ivy League Player of the Year. The League’s top scorer came through for her team in the biggest game of the regular season, while her chief competitor, Kaitlyn Chen, struggled all night to make shots, as did her entire team. The reigning Ivy Player of the Year played all 40 minutes but connected on only five of 20 shots. When these two teams last met in January, it was Hsu who labored to score 21 points on 22 shots.
Ultimately, Columbia won the game by turning the tables on the Tigers and getting stops. The Lions played tight defense and held Princeton to one of its worst shooting performances (26 of 70 for 37%) of the season.
“We challenged a lot of shots tonight,” said Griffith. “I don’t think any shots were uncontested.”
With the win, Columbia moved into a first place tie in the Ivy League standings with Princeton at 10-1. Columbia will finish the regular season with three straight road games at Brown, Yale and Cornell, while Princeton will conclude the regular season with three games at home against Harvard, Dartmouth, and Penn.
The loss snaps Princeton’s 15-game winning streak and likely will result in the Tigers dropping from the national rankings. Columbia, on the other hand, won for the seventh straight game and clearly is building momentum during the home stretch of the Ivy League season.