In a historic season of firsts, the Columbia women’s basketball team couldn’t get a NCAA Tournament Round of 64 win, falling on Saturday afternoon to the West Virginia Mountaineers, 78-59, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Mountaineers, who used a furious rally in the third quarter to defeat Princeton in last year’s NCAA Tournament Round of 64, ousted another Ivy foe on Saturday, dominating Columbia wire-to-wire.
Columbia is used to turning over its opponents with relentless full court pressure, but there’s an old saying in basketball that team’s that press don’t like to be pressed themselves, and that adage proved correct on Saturday as West Virginia’s signature zone press wreaked havoc on the Lions, forcing 25 turnovers, including 11 in the first quarter.
“West Virginia is a great team and a super-unique team in the women’s game,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said postgame. “I think what they do not a lot of teams do, right, and especially defensively. March Madness is who can make the other team the most uncomfortable, and I thought they did that successfully to start the game. You know, forcing 11 turnovers.”
The 11 first-quarter giveaways doomed any chance the Lions had to establish a rhythm early in the game. Instead, it was West Virginia’s tandem of All-Big 12 guards, JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison, who got off to a fast start.
After Perri Page dribbled the ball of her foot in response to West Virginia’s pressure, Harrison picked up the loose change and took the ball to the cup to stake the Mountaineers to a 4-0 start. Moments later, Harrison drained a straightaway trey to make it 7-2 West Virginia. Harrison finished the game with a career high 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting, including 2-for-3 from distance.
Five straight points by Kitty Henderson on a layup and three-pointer kept Columbia in contact. The senior guard, who became the first player in Columbia history to win 100 games for the Light Blue on Thursday night, tallied 13 points and hauled in a game-high nine rebounds in her last game in a Columbia uniform.
Quinerly soon got into the action by driving the lane and leaning into a bank shot to make it 14-10, West Virginia. After two missed Columbia threes, Quinerly drove for another layup. The senior guard tallied a game 27 points and surpassed the 2,000-point mark in her career, only the third player in West Virginia history to do so.
With 1:20 to go in the first quarter, Henderson picked up her third foul by going over Quinerly’s back after a missed three pointer by Riley Weiss. The senior leader of the Lions sat for the rest of the quarter. After the game, Henderson expressed disappointment at her lack of discipline.
“I keep getting myself into those situations, but I just need to be smarter,” Henderson said. “I come on with three fouls, and I just know that I need to be smarter with how I play and what rebounds I go for. I think just, like, being a gritty player, I need to be smart with which ones I go for and which balls and things. It’s just like down to that and just picking and choosing the right battle, I think.”
The Mountaineers led 24-15 at the end of the first frame.
In the second quarter, things continued to go south for the Lions. Susie Rafiu, trying to fight off pressure, threw a hard elbow to the face of Quinerly and was called for a flagrant foul. Harrison drained both free throws awarded to WVU and then assisted on a layup by Sydney Woodley to put the Mountaineers up by thirteen, 30-17, with just under eight minutes to play in the first half.
With the game slipping away, Griffith gambled and brought Henderson back into the game. A similar gamble paid off in Columbia’s win at Princeton on February 22, when Griffith risked playing Henderson the entire fourth quarter with four fouls. The gamble on Saturday mostly paid off again as Henderson managed to avoid fouling out, albeit with less aggressiveness on the defensive side of the ball.
With just under six minutes to play in the first half, Kyah Watson blocked a Henderson three and the ball landed in the hands of Harrison. Unable to foul, Henderson allowed Harrison to dribble in for an uncontested layup.
The Moutaineers 46-29 at the intermission, paced by 16 points apiece by Harrison and Quinerly.
In the third quarter, WVU went right at Henderson knowing that the senior guard couldn’t afford to foul. With Henderson sagging on defense, Harrison tallied three straight layups to open the second half.
But Columbia refused to go quietly. Back-to-back treys by Weiss and Cecelia Collins, the latter on a third chance possession, gave Columbia some momentum. Another second-chance trey by Weiss late in the quarter gave the Columbia faithful hope that a comeback similar to what the Lions achieved two days earlier against Washington might be in store.
But West Virginia had an answer every time it looked like Columbia might make a run.
A floater in the lane by Quinerly followed by a layup in the paint by Watson at the buzzer padded WVU’s lead to 18 as the Mountaineers took a 63-45 lead into the final stanza.
In the fourth quarter, both teams struggled to score in the early going before Henderson led a final Columbia charge. The Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year hit two throws, a rarity for the Australian, and a layup, to make it a 16-point game.
But a trey by Quinerly quashed the Columbia comeback.
A steal and finish by Quinerly with 1:12 to play put a fitting exclamation point on the contest as West Virginia cruised to a 78-59 victory.
“For me, I love attacking the hoop, so that’s what I did most of the game,” Quinerly said. “I did shoot a couple of threes that I maybe didn’t like, but I have to shoot them to get into a rhythm, but definitely stayed on the attack and just kept putting pressure on them.”
After the game, Griffith paid homage to her two sensational seniors, Henderson and Collins.
“Our two seniors, Kitty and Cece, who literally gave this program everything they had, I’m going to miss them tremendously. I said this to them, but it’s been a true honor to coach them. Really, really proud of them.”
A tearful Henderson tried to reflect on her outstanding career at Columbia, which included setting the all-time mark for assists in program history.
“I mean, this program means everything to me. I’m going to remember all the moments with my teammates. When we’re all going through it in practice, like, I don’t know. Just everything with my teammates. With the staff, I mean, we just love each other so much. I feel like we mean so much to each other, so just spending time even in the locker room, anything like that, it’s just the little moments mean so much.”
Collins, too, reflected on the historic accomplishments she played an important part in achieving during her two years at Columbia.
“It means a lot to make history obviously for this program, but you know, our goal was to go deep into this tournament, so we’re obviously disappointed with the outcome of today’s game, but yeah, like I said, we’re happy about that first win, but we wanted to turn the page and get it done versus West Virginia.”
In leading off his postgame comments, West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg paid tribute to Columbia and the Ivy League.
“Congratulations to Columbia,” Kellogg said to reporters. “That’s a fantastic basketball team. We were prepared. I thought our game plan was good, but it was really — we knew we had a challenge. I think last year when we played Princeton, it gave us a really good idea of what the Ivy League basketball is like and some of the physicality and some of their toughness. They have a great culture over there. Very, very well-coached.”
The loss brings an end to a historic season for Columbia. The Lions won their first undisputed Ivy League championship and their first NCAA Tournament game in program history.
Despite the disappointing loss to a powerful West Virginia team, the Light Blue will continue to challenge for Ivy titles and NCAA Tournament berths so long as Griffith stays in Morningside Heights.
“I believe that we can be a championship program that would play deep into March, and all those young players, they’ve never experienced anything else. Only Susie and Perri. They went to the WNIT final, and then the very next year they go to the NCAA Tournament, and they win the first NCAA Tournament game. Every year they see this program growing. For all of our young players, they know one way now. We fought like hell to get here, and I promise you that is not something we will let go easily. Every year it just continues to motivate you knowing that you can do more. That’s what they were talking about in the locker room, which gives me a lot of hope as a coach too to say we’re going to take that next step. We’re going to win that first game. We’re going to the Round of 32. We’re going to the Sweet 16. It’s just invaluable to have these experiences.”