Twenty minutes from a second straight defeat in the NCAA Tournament’s First Four, the Columbia women’s basketball team “heard what they needed to hear” from coach Megan Griffith and overcame a 13-point deficit to defeat Washington 63-60 at Carmichael Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Thursday night.
Thursday night’s NCAA victory, the first ever for the Lions’ program, propelled Columbia (24-6) into a first-round matchup against No. 6 West Virginia on Saturday at 2 p.m. on ESPNEWS. The Huskies (19-14), making their first appearance in the Big Dance since 2017, look to use this experience as motivation for next season.
Aware of the Light Blue’s strength from the outside, the Huskies strengthened its perimeter defense and held the Lions to a 0-for-9 result over the opening frame.
Columbia limited Washington, the Big Ten’s top three-point shooting team, to only one triple in the first quarter, but Tina Langley’s team opted to focus its game on its inside strength.
Time after time, the Huskies’ big three of graduate forward Dalayah Daniels, sophomore guard Sayvia Sellers and junior guard Elle Ladine used their size and speed to find a path to the hoop.
Boosted by a 11-0 run over a four-and-a-half-minute stretch, Washington finished the quarter up 21-10.
Columbia increased its defensive effort in the second quarter but couldn’t generate enough turnovers to ignite its transition offense, and the shots kept missing. As a result, the Huskies went into the half with a 13-point lead, 34-21.
With its outside game being held in check, Washington built its lead on 60% (15-for-25) shooting from the inside, with 30 of those points being generated in the paint. Defensively, the Huskies limited the Lions to 13% (2-for-15) from three and 47% (7-for-15) from two, with only 12 coming from the inside.
Washington entered the night having won five of its last six contests. Coupling their recent performances with their first-half dominance, the Huskies had every right to be confident as they headed to the locker room. Nut that could have been the beginning of the team’s end.
“We even heard their players saying like we should be up 30 right now. So, I’m like, all right, cool,” Griffith told the media in the postgame press conference. “So we tell our team, hey, listen, this is the game. They think they should be beating you by more. For them, I think the sense of pride came back into their heads.”
Langley didn’t see it that way after the game.
“They’ve not been known for overconfidence this year,” Langley said. “If anything, I would be more concerned that we would be nervous because sometimes we just didn’t understand how good we are.”
Whatever was or wasn’t said, the Lions came out of the locker room a much more aggressive team.
Columbia limited Washington to only eight points in the paint and forced Washington to the perimeter, where it ended up 0-for-4 for the quarter. On the other side of the ball, the Lions were still having a hard time from three, going 1-for-3, but they managed to connect on 50% (5-for-10) from inside and go a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line.
A Henderson mid-court steal and layup making it a three-point game, 43-40, at the one-minute mark of the third quarter.
A Sellers layup from the left side, breaking free of sophomore guard Marija Avlijas at the top of the arc, left the Huskies up five heading into the final frame.
After sophomore guard Riley Weiss missed a three to start the fourth quarter, Henderson notched another steal and got it back to her fellow first team All-Ivy sharpshooter. The Long Island native was fouled as she successfully connected her triple from the left elbow and made the free throw to make it a 45-44 contest.
Ninety seconds later, Weiss launched another triple, this time from the top of the key, and the Lions had their first lead of the evening, 47-45.
Similar to what she did at the end of the third quarter, Sellers faked out Henderson at the top of the arc and went in for the uncontested layup to tie the game.
Not to be outdone, Weiss took the ball on the next possession and hit yet another three from the left wing to put Columbia back up three.
After the Lions forced another turnover on the Huskies’ next trip up the court, Henderson worked a give-and-go with senior guard Cecelia Collins, and the lead was 52-47.
With Columbia still up five, 54-49, with just over five minutes to go, Sellers hit a pull-up jumper and a layup from the right side to make it a one-point contest at the final media timeout.
At the 3:40 mark, Sellers stole a pass from out of Henderson’s hands and took it to the hoop. Her high-banking shot missed the mark, but Avlijas fouled Teagan Brown as the teams battled for the rebound.
The junior guard from Sacramento, Calif. hit one of two free throws to knot the game at 54 with 3:34 left in regulation.
With the shot clock winding down, Weiss was double teamed at the free throw line but spotted an open Susie Rafiu and the junior forward took it to the hole to put the Lions back up by two.
Henderson got payback on Sellers, stripping the ball from the Honorable Mention Big Ten guard. The Ivy League’s Defensive Player of the Year worked the shot clock down to single digits before finding Avlijas on the left wing, and the Serbian guard sank the bucket to make it 59-54.
On the next possession, Daniels got the ball down low, trying to push Rafiu to the hoop. While that worked in the opening half, the Lions forward held her ground and forced Daniels into a foul.
Henderson was fouled the next time up the court but missed both attempts.
With under 90 seconds to go, Ladine launched a shot from way beyond the top of the arc. The ball went like a pinball, hitting multiple parts of the rim before falling in and making it a two-point game.
A Columbia shot-clock violation gave the Huskies the ball with 36 seconds on the scoreboard and a chance to tie or take the lead.
Sellers again got free of her defender and made a move to the basket, but Weiss got her hand on the layup, and the shot missed its mark.
Lions guard Perri Page came down with the ball and Columbia called timeout.
The inbounds came to Weiss who was fouled and sent to the line for two shots. The Light Blue’s best free throw shooter sank both to go ahead by four, 61-57, with 18 seconds left.
Coming out of a Huskies’ timeout, the Huskies got the ball into junior guard Hannah Stines at the left baseline, who fired a pass to Ladine at the elbow. The San Francisco native took her shot over the outstretched arms of Henderson and Weiss and it was a one-point contest.
Weiss was sent to the line after grabbing the next inbounds and made two more free throws to make it 63-60.
Washington called its last timeout, presumably looking for another deep ball.
The Huskies ran the exact same play for Ladine, but this time she had to shoot over the taller Rafiu and Page, and the ball hit off the back of the rim.
Page came down with the contested defensive rebound with 1.7 seconds left, and the Lions faithful began to erupt.
Despite missing both free throws, there was not enough time for Washington to get a shot off, and the game was over.
In the second half, Columbia connected on 50% (8-for-16) from two and 63% (5-for-8) from three, with an 80% (4-for-5) mark in the fourth quarter. They also netted 14 points in the paint and converted 16 points off 11 Huskies’ turnovers. Despite allowing Washington to shoot 69% from two (9-for-13), the Lions limited the Huskies to 22% (2-for-9) from three, six free throw attempts (connecting on only 2), and 14 points in the paint.
In comparing Columbia’s defensive effort on Washington’s big three, the Big Ten trio combined for 31 points on 63% (15-for-24) shooting, 14 rebounds and four turnovers in the first half. In the second 20 minutes, they were reduced to 23 points on 53% (10-for-19) shooting with six boards and eight turnovers.
“First half, honestly, we were really trying to close off the exits and let 14 (Daniels) go to work, and she went to work,” the Lions coach said when asked what worked in holding the Huskies’ starts at bay in the second half. “So (at) halftime, we said we’ve got to be better in the gaps. We’ve got to move on our time. We’re going to send doubles in the post to make her think. She’s a nice passer, but let’s really speed her up. We didn’t want to do it right away. We wanted to do it on the dribble, and I thought we executed that well.”
On a historic night for the Lions, Weiss led the way with 24 points, including 14 points with three triples and a perfect 5-for-5 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter.
“No one can stop her. She was a beast,” Henderson said. “I’m really proud of her. She’s gotten so much better at knowing when it’s her time, and that was today.”
While it was Columbia’s first-ever NCAA Tournament win, it was Henderson’s 100th for the Light Blue. The coach had high praise for the program’s all-time winningest player.
“With Kitty, wow, what a winner. She’s absolutely my most favorite player I’ve ever coached. I love Abbey Hsu, everybody hear me say that, but wow, Kitty’s a winner,” Griffith said. “To get 100 wins in her four-year career when we don’t have a big conference schedule, that is even more impressive in my opinion. Just the most selfless human and basketball player and leader in our program that we’ve ever seen.”
The Lions are looking ahead to a West Virginia team that bounced Princeton from the first round a year ago and are confident in the team’s chances to keep moving forward.
“It feels really good to get this win, but after we get this win and celebrate a little bit, we’re onto the next game,” Weiss said. “We’re focused on winning the next game because I know we can make a deep run. We have a ton of potential, and we’re not even close to it yet.”