NEW YORK – In front of a partisan, sold-out crowd at Levien Gymnasium Friday, Ivy League Player of the Year Abbey Hsu used a 20-point, 14 rebound performance to lead her No. 2 Columbia Lions over No. 3 Harvard, 63-61, to set up a long-awaited final showdown with Princeton on Saturday night.
If Hsu, head coach Megan Griffith and the rest of the Lions can slay the Tigers, the program will earn its first-ever Ivy League Tournament title, as well as its inaugural berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Even though the teams were playing for the seventh time in two seasons and Columbia had won five of the previous six meetings, the Lions still looked for revenge on the program that beat them in last year’s Ivy Madness semis and knocked Columbia out of March Madness.
As typical for these two teams, the game was placed at a fast pace and the game was practically even.
After the opening quarter, the main stars of both teams led the way with Harvard’s junior guard Harmoni Turner totaling 11 points and Hsu countering with nine.
The two teams kept each other close in the second quarter, and the Crimson finished the half up one, 30-29, after sophomore guard Gabby Anderson sank a three-pointer at the buzzer.
Over the opening 20 minutes, Harvard hit 48% (10-for-21) from inside the arc and 40% (2-for-5) from outside, while Columbia shot 31% (5-for-16) from two and 46% (5-for-11) from three.
On the glass, the teams battled to a draw with each grabbing 16 rebounds.
Turner had 13 at the intermission and sophomore forward Katie Krupa added nine for Harvard. For the Lions, Hsu totaled 15, but no other player had more than three points.
According to Griffith, her team didn’t execute the game plan in the first half, and she challenged them to follow through in the second.
“I thought our first half, we didn’t really execute our game plan,” Griffith told the media in the postgame media conference. “We really challenged our team to come out and set a tone for that third quarter and I thought that’s exactly what we did.”
While Hsu struggled a bit from the floor, going 1-for-4 over the next 10 minutes, sophomore forward Susie Rafiu hit three big layups and junior guard Cecelia Collins added a layup and an emphatic and-one.
Defensively, Columbia was locked in and held Harvard to 21% (3-for-14) shooting from the floor, including an 0-for-4 effort from beyond the arc.
The Lions finally grabbed a double-digit lead, 52-42, when first-year forward Fliss Henderson hit a driving layup with 6:37 left in regulation, but the Crimson wouldn’t go away.
Harvard first-year forward Abigail Wright hit two consecutive buckets to make it a six-point game, 52-46, but the Crimson kept fouling and went into the bonus with more than four minutes remaining.
The teams were still separated by eight points a minute later, when Turner picked Nicole Stephens pocket and went in for the uncontested layup. On the next inbounds, the Crimson pressured Collins into coughing up the ball and Karlee White hit another layup to cut the deficit to four, 57-53.
While the fans may have had a sense of deja vu, the coach told the media after the game that the staff and the team never panicked.
“I just really trust this team. I think they’ve worked really hard to earn that from me and the staff,” Griffith said after the contest. “All we have to do is put them in the right positions and I know they’re going to execute.”
Withstanding Harvard’s continued pressure, Collins and junior guard Kitty Henderson, Fliss’ older sister, went to the free throw line and hit four straight buckets to get the lead back to eight, 61-53, with under a minute to go.
Turner got a jumper from the charity stripe to make it a six-point game, but the elder Henderson made one-of-two free throws to up the lead to seven with less than thirty seconds on the clock.
On the next possession, Krupa hit a three from the left elbow, the first triple for Harvard since the opening quarter, to make it 62-58 in favor of Columbia. Unfortunately for Harvard, they were down two possessions and there was only 10 seconds left in the game.
Kitty Henderson was fouled a few seconds after getting the inbounds ball and made one of two to up the lead to five.
Saniya Glenn-Bello hit another Harvard three with two seconds remaining, but it was too little too late.
In the decisive second half, the Lions earned the victory by limiting the Crimson to 33% from the field, including 20% (2-for-10) from downtown, limiting Turner to eight points and second-leading scorer senior guard Lola Mullaney to zero.
In addition to Hsu’s numbers, Rafiu finished with 11 points and Collins added 10 points and five rebounds. Kitty Henderson was also in the double-digit column, with six of her ten points coming from the charity stripe in the final quarter.
For the Crimson, Turner had 21 points and Krupa totaled 16. Mullaney, finishing her All-Ivy career on Friday evening, was held to 2-for-11 and only four points.
Harvard, a very good team that had to deal with a lot of injuries, now waits to see which of the WBIT or WNIT come calling so Carrie Moore’s squad can continue its journey.
Meanwhile, the victorious Lions now finds itself 40 minutes from glory with only the Princeton Tigers, winners of five straight Ivy League Tournaments, in their way.
“I think we’re not satisfied. We are extremely hungry,” Hsu to the media. “We were right in this same spot (playing Princeton in the finals) two years ago. Just because we got through the first one doesn’t mean we’re going to lay down and be happy. We know there is a mission to accomplish, and we are ready for it.”