After the magic of the three-bid Ivy last season, Columbia, alongside Harvard, had work to do in conference play after good-but-not-great nonconference campaigns.
Entering Ivy play in Charlie Creme’s Next Four Out, the Lions now likely can wave the dream of an at-large bid goodbye after going down in the second quarter before Cornell pulled ahead for good late in the third en route to a 67–60 upset.
Despite playing in the friendly confines of Levien Gym, the Lions (9-5, 0-1 Ivy) just couldn’t find an offensive rhythm. Senior forward/guard Perri Page led the way with 24 points, and junior guard Fliss Henderson had a strong game with 16 rebounds. But critically, Columbia had zero bench points and junior guard Riley Weiss had her worst shooting performance of the season, making just one field goal.
Senior forward Emily Pape led the way for the Big Red (5-8, 1-0) with 19 points, with junior guard/forward Rachel Kaus adding 15 points and three offensive rebounds.
A Weiss-centric offense shows its limitations
Weiss converted a three-point field goal with 8:59 left in the first quarter. That was her only basket all day from the field.
The Lions’ star guard, the Ivy’s leading scorer in nonconference play, scored just five points on 1-14 shooting from the field, missing her last eight three-point attempts. Columbia crawled within two possessions at multiple times during the fourth quarter with the ball in Weiss’s hands, but shot after shot bounced off the rim.
It was Page instead doing the heavy lifting for the Lions, as the senior forward contributed a career-high 24 points, many deep in the paint. While she individually had a very successful day — with 17 of her 24 points coming in the second half — it wasn’t enough to hold off Cornell’s attack.
Last year, the Lions had the benefit of All-Ivy sharpshooters Cecelia Collins and Kitty Henderson to buoy their offense, but Saturday showed that the Lions still need to develop this season’s identity. If Page can maintain her scoring streak and Weiss can find her form, Columbia may have a new offensive tandem to define itself this season.
Is Columbia’s bench a problem?
Entering Saturday’s contest, two Ivy League teams ranked in the bottom five nationally in bench points per game: Cornell and No. 25 Princeton. Columbia did not fare much better, though, at 313th in the country. Against Cornell, the Lions had zero points from their bench.
While the Lions rotate in anywhere between five and seven bench players in most games, only Mia Broom, who began the year in the starting five, averages more than 2.1 points per game. If Broom has an off day, the Lions don’t have a reliable sixth woman to turn to, instead looking at a revolving door coming off the bench.
In the Lions’ two best wins this year — against South Dakota State and at Seton Hall — Columbia had eight and seven bench points, respectively. Even that minimal degree of contribution would have made the difference Saturday. Instead, the Lions’ bench had zero points on just six shot attempts, placing a further burden on Weiss when she couldn’t find the back of the net.
Should Cornell be taken seriously in the Ivy?
Before tipoff, the Ivy could be divided into three tiers: the Big Three of Princeton, Columbia and Harvard, all within the top 75 nationally in Bart Torvik’s rankings; the next level of contenders in Penn and Brown, ranked 107th and 125th respectively; and the “easy wins” of Dartmouth, Yale, and Cornell, none of whom ranked better than Dartmouth at 260.
Just one game into conference play, the Big Red are showing that the Ancient Eight cannot be made as simple as pundits might imagine. Cornell didn’t have a single win in Quadrant III in nonconference play, let alone the Quadrant II win that they clinched Saturday, and entered on a five-game losing streak. That all turned around Saturday, when Cornell got their first win at Columbia since 2018.
Emily Pape led the way for Cornell with 19 points. The senior forward from Park Ridge, Ill. demonstrated her versatility Saturday, shooting 40% from long range. Despite being one of the taller players on the team, she takes nearly 41% of the entire team’s three-point attempts. While shooting just under 32% from beyond the arc on the season, she’s at 40% in her last two games on 25 attempts, a sign she may be finding her midseason stride.
A confident Pape alongside fellow Illinois native Kaus — who contributed 15 points and lengthened multiple possessions late with an offensive rebound — could be Cornell’s key to wreaking some havoc in Ivy League play. Despite their offensive woes to start the year, Cornell are now tied for first in the league and have a chance to show their victory was not a fluke next Saturday against a Dartmouth (9-5, 0-1) team that was just walloped by Harvard (8-6, 1-0).
Columbia will look to rebound with a tough matchup at Harvard next Saturday. Both Cornell and Columbia’s matchups will be at 2 p.m. broadcast on ESPN+.