In like a lamb, out like a Lion. Right?
That’s how March has played out for Columbia women’s basketball. After two losses to Harvard, including a nail-biter in the Ivy League semifinal, the Lions entered the WBIT as a team on a mission.
Steamrolling St. John’s and North Dakota State and escaping against California, they earned their way to the semifinal in Wichita, Kan.
In their final game of March, the Lions continued their postseason winning ways. Never trailing, Columbia suffocated Wisconsin defensively while doing just enough offensively to earn a comfortable win and punch their ticket to the WBIT final by a score of 67-50.
Junior guard Riley Weiss led the way for the Lions (24-8, 11-3 Ivy) with 21 points, and the trio of junior forward Hilke Feldrappe, senior forward Susie Rafiu, and sophomore guard Mia Broom all added double-digit points. For the Badgers (16–18, 5–13 Big Ten), senior guard Destiny Howell paced the team with 12.
The most notable statistic, though, was the rebound margin. With nine rebounds each from Rafiu and Broom and eight from senior guard Perri Page, Columbia outrebounded Wisconsin, 51-32. The Lions missed just enough second-chance opportunities for this game to truly have been a laugher, yet little stress existed for the small crowd present in Wichita.
Early in the first quarter, Columbia raced out to a 6–0 lead behind three-pointers from Broom and Feldrappe. With another three-pointer later in the game, Feldrappe has converted four shots from long range in the postseason, double her regular-season total in just four games.
With Wisconsin focusing their defensive efforts on smothering Weiss, an ensemble cast led Columbia in scoring through the rest of the first quarter, picking up second-chance opportunities. Largely, the first quarter set the stylistic tone of the game. Columbia outrebounded Wisconsin 16–6 in just 10 minutes, yet five turnovers — one from each starter — kept the Badgers in the game. After the first 10 minutes, Columbia led just 13–9.
Early in the second quarter, the Badgers suffered a serious loss when the team’s second-leading scorer, junior guard Kyrah Daniels, left the game with a non-contact lower leg injury. Daniels returned to the bench in the second half on crutches, cheering on her teammates but unable to do anything more.
Minus Daniels, junior guard Laci Steele tried to will the Badgers back into the game. Countering the strong post presence from Page and Rafiu, Steele converted a second-chance opportunity and defended effectively, helping Wisconsin come within four points midway through the quarter.
Heading into the half, though, the Lions caught fire offensively for the first time all day. They took decisive advantage of their physicality in the paint to rattle off 10 straight points, bringing the gap to 14 and shortly thereafter heading into the half up 32-17.
The two sides largely traded punches in the third quarter, with Columbia outscoring Wisconsin, 16-15. Heading into the fourth, the Lions had a comfortable 16-point lead, but Wisconsin attempted to will their way back into the game, going on a 9-0 run to bring the margin to 52-44, the first time the score had been within 10 since the second quarter. During the Wisconsin run, Columbia committed three turnovers, a sign of its Achilles’ heel all day.
With the margin at 52-44, Rafiu committed yet another sloppy turnover. But with Wisconsin’s ensuing shot clock winding down, Broom successfully stole the ball, finding sophomore guard Nasi Simmons down the court for a layup to bring the lead back to double digits. The Lions coasted to a comfortable victory from there, never letting the lead shrink below 10.
Perhaps the most noteworthy play of the closing minutes came at the very end of a Columbia possession, when shot clock mismanagement led to Columbia’s only chance of firing a shot off before a violation being a Riley Weiss heave from Braylon Mullins territory. And, like the UConn freshman the day before, it was nothing but net.
The Lions advance to the WBIT title game 7 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN2. They will await the winner of No. 2 Kansas (19–13, 8–10 Big 12) and No. 1 BYU (25–11, 9–9 Big 12). Should the Jayhawks advance, it will be a rematch of the 2023 WNIT title game, in which Columbia lost at Kansas, 66-59.