In a game that saw 13 lead changes and eight ties, Columbia women’s basketball pulled away in the final 40 seconds to come away with a tough 81-79 victory over San Francisco Wednesday.
The win gets the Lions to 7-3 and back on track after a 77-61 defeat at Duke this past Sunday, while the loss puts the Dons at 2-5 on the season.
Columbia entered the contest as the No. 3 team in this week’s CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25, but the Dons weren’t intimidated.
The two teams played a fast-paced physical game from the start, with San Francisco grabbing a four-point lead several times during the opening quarter.
With the Dons up 18-14, the Lions used a jumper from sophomore guard Riley Weiss, a floater from rookie guard Mia Broom and a triple from sophomore guard Marija Avlijas over the last 2:24 to end the frame up 21-20.
The hosts extended their lead to six points on two occasions in the second quarter before San Francisco cut the lead to 32-30.
Just like the previous session, Columbia dominated the end of the quarter, with Broom, Weiss and junior guard/forward Perri Page each hitting a three-pointer to help the hosts go into halftime with a 43-30 advantage.
Over the opening 20 minutes, the Lions were a strong 42% (7-for 17) from three, aided by a 4-for-5 effort to end the half and a 10-point advantage in points off turnovers. Inside the arc, they managed only 39% (9-for-23), after hitting 53% (7-for-13) in the first quarter.
On the defensive side, Columbia limited the Dons to 9% (1-for-11) from downtown. The Light Blue also grabbed 10 more rebounds, which led to nine more shots and eight more second-chance points.
Things were trending in the right direction as the Lions went to the locker room, but they went in the other direction after coming back to the court.
While Columbia often creates distance from its mid-major opponents in the third quarter, San Francisco flipped the script and used a 11-0 run to start the second half.
By the 5:41 mark, the Dons finished with a 17-2 run to take a 47-45 lead in front of a stunned, sold-out Levien Gymnasium crowd.
The Lions regrouped with a driving layup by senior guard Kitty Henderson, the reigning Ivy Player of the Week, and another long-range shot by Broom to grab a 50-47 advantage.
The two teams continued trading the lead through the final minutes of the frame, with the visitors ultimately grabbing a 60-58 advantage when the horn sounded.
The fourth quarter followed the pattern of the latter stages of the third, with the teams swapping the lead multiple times.
With three and a half minutes left in regulation and the Dons ahead 73-72, Avijlas drove along the right side of the lane and made a diving layup to put Columbia back up one.
Ninety seconds later, after both teams missed a pair of shots, Weiss nailed another three-pointer from the right elbow to make it 77-73.
After San Francisco’s Debora dos Santos hit two free throws to cut the deficit in half, the redshirt senior forward picked off a pass from Henderson and dished it off to a streaking Emma Trawally Porta. The grad forward then went around Henderson for the layup and the game was knotted at 77 with 68 seconds on the clock.
The Lions worked the shot clock to single digits, when senior guard Cecelia Collins drove to her right from the top of the arc and hit a layup to put Columbia up two.
The Dons decided against taking a timeout and pushed the ball up the court.
Senior guard Freja Werth got the ball on the left side and looked to send it back to her point guard, Luana Leite, when Collins deflected the pass into Weiss’ hands. Collins then collided with Leite, taking out the only person who could have challenged the Lions’ speedy guard on her way to a layup.
dos Santos missed a three-pointer on San Francisco’s next trip up the court, then Columbia turned the ball over with six seconds left in regulation.
Columbia didn’t contest the Dons’ quick layup, making it 81-79, and Henderson was fouled off the inbounds with 0.3 seconds on the game clock.
Henderson missed the first free throw and then intentionally missed the second to finally put the game away.
Over the final 20 minutes, the Dons shot 59% (13-for-22) from inside the arc, 42% (5-for-12) from outside the arc and 89% (8-for-9) from the charity stripe. The Lions were successful from two-point range, hitting 61% (11-for-18) attempts but struggled from the three-point and free-throw lines, making only 25% (3-for-12) and 47% (7-for-15), respectively.
Fortunately, Columbia was strong when it counted, hitting 73% (8-for-11) of its two-pointers over the last 10 minutes while holding San Francisco to 25% (1-for-4) from three over that same time.
The Lions struggled from the three-point line, shooting 25% (3-fof-12), and the charity stripe, hitting 47% (7-for-15). But they were successful on the inside, making 61% (11-for-18) of their attempts, including 73% (8-for-11) in the decisive fourth quarter.
Weiss led all scorers with 24 points, including four from downtown, and Henderson finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
Bloom, playing in only her second game of the season, ended the day with a stat-stuffing line of 13 points (with three triples), seven rounds, five blocks and three assists in 21 minutes of action.
The win makes it 17 straight at Levien Gym for Megan Griffith’s two-time-defending season champs. Columbia will put the streak on the line over a month from now when it plays their next home contest against arch-nemesis Princeton on January 20.
For now, the Lions will look to make it two in a row when they travel to Richmond to take on the Spiders this Sunday.