In the hostile confines of Lavietes Pavilion, Columbia women’s basketball squeaked by Harvard, 58–55, in a marquee Ivy League matchup Saturday. The Lions (10-5, 1-1 Ivy) dominated the first 21 minutes of play before a furious Crimson (8-7, 1-1) third-quarter comeback led to a vigorous fourth-quarter battle.
The Lions won on an and-one play from senior guard Perri Page with 1.9 seconds to go. Page was the offensive star of the game, with an all-around performance of 24 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and five steals.
Columbia got off to a lightning-fast start, converting easy baskets and making Harvard very uncomfortable with an aggressive press. Leading 16–3 at one point, Columbia showed in the first quarter that the haze which surrounded it last week in its shocking loss against Cornell had evaporated. However, the first quarter was not all success, as senior forward Susie Rafiu left the game with a shoulder injury.
Defense and physicality clearly were emphases for both teams. Each side pressed aggressively, leading to neither team being able to find a sustained offensive rhythm. No strangers to each other, having met three times last year including in an exciting Ivy League championship game, the rivals played with passion throughout.
Emerging from the half up 34–21, Columbia scored two quick layups before Harvard coach Carrie Moore exasperatedly called a timeout just 40 seconds into the half. The unconventional move paid off, though, as Harvard scored nearly half its points of the entire day in that third quarter.
In the middle of the action for Harvard was freshman guard Olivia Jones. Jones wreaked havoc on defense, taking a steal — and collecting an offensive rebound on the ensuing possession — which led to Harvard’s first lead of the game, 47–45. Scoring for Harvard was junior forward Abigail Wright, who had 20 points and six rebounds on the day.
Into the fourth, the Crimson maintained an early lead as the Lavietes crowd, adorned in promotional “NERDS 26” Harvard jerseys, willed them forward. Columbia didn’t quit, though, willed forward by Weiss converting three foul shots to tie the game at 52 and a go-ahead three from junior guard Fliss Henderson. Henderson had another solid day for the Lions, with eight points, nine rebounds and six assists to go along with stout defense.
A minute and a half after Henderson’s shot, with the game knotted at 55 and the clock ticking down, Page was the hero of the day, taking the successful shot on an inbounds play designed to get the ball to her hands. Page’s performance leads the Columbia takeaways below from today’s action:
Page bookends game as key scoring threat for the Lions
Perri Page wasted no time setting the tone for her game Saturday, banking in a three-pointer for Columbia’s first three points of the game. Entering the game shooting just 21% from three, Page made yet another three in the first quarter en route to 10 first-quarter points.
The Pittsburgh native has been far and away Columbia’s best scoring threat in Ivy play, scoring 24 points in both games and averaging 10.5 rebounds. Page has arguably been Columbia’s most consistent player this season, scoring 10 or more points in every game where she has played at least 20 minutes. It was an open question going into the season who would pick up the scoring slack for the Lions, and thus far, Perri Page has answered the call and has herself well-positioned for an All-Ivy nod.
Points of concern: Susie Rafiu, Riley Weiss
When Rafiu left in the first quarter, the forward tandem of freshman Eirny Erinugha and junior Hilke Feldrappe got more playing time. While neither stuffed the stat sheet, they were important in their attempt to stave off Harvard’s interior offense. However, Rafiu’s presence was missed.
Despite Page scoring most of her points near the hoop, Harvard won on points in the paint, 36–26, and one can only think that Rafiu’s defense may have made that margin slimmer. It is not yet clear the extent of Rafiu’s injury, though she was on the bench icing her shoulder later in the game.
Last week, Riley Weiss shot 1–for-14 from the field. This week, she didn’t do much better, shooting 3–for-16 and 1–for-5 from three, many attempts of which were from well beyond the arc. While she emerged in double-digits with 12 points, her role as Columbia’s offensive leader will likely diminish if this poor shooting performance continues.
Weiss’ numbers on the whole are down slightly this year, buoyed by a three-game stretch in the Cancun Challenge where she averaged 27.3 points per game against tough competition. Now averaging just 8.5 in the first two games of Ivy play, Megan Griffith’s sharpshooter needs to turn a corner quickly.
As Columbia showed last week, no matchup in the Ivy League is a given win. However, next week’s home game against Yale (4-11, 0-2) should be a chance for Columbia to play with a lead and get Weiss right. The Bulldogs are improved from last year’s team with a dreadful 4-23 record, but they are still not near Columbia’s caliber. Bart Torvik’s rankings favor the Lions by 29 and give them a 98% chance of winning.
It’s the first two-game weekend of the year next week in the Ivy League, as the Lions will then host a dangerous Brown (10-4, 2-0) team next Monday afternoon. Harvard will look forward to their road trip to the southernmost Ivy members at Penn (10-5, 0-2) Saturday and No. 24 Princeton (14-1, 2-0) Monday.