Cecelia Collins

Harvard women’s basketball wins round two at Columbia, 60-54

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Rebounding from a home loss to Columbia on national television 17 days ago, Harvard women’s basketball used its pressure defense and a big fourth-quarter run to take round two at Levien Gymnasium, 60-54, in front of a raucous sellout crowd and ESPNU audience.

“I’m just really proud of our team … We were obviously disappointed with what we were able to do in that last game. You saw more of who we are in this game,” Harvard coach Carrie Moore said. “This team being able to take a punch, and then give a punch, and take another punch and punch back. We just really showed our growth and maturity.”

Harvard (19-3, 8-2 Ivy), which beat Cornell by 37 points on Friday night and exorcised the demons of its lackluster performance against the Big Red 16 days earlier, remains in third place but now sits only one game out of first place.

While Columbia (18-5, 9-1) clinched a spot in the Ivy League Tournament with its 89-37 victory over Dartmouth on Friday night, Sunday’s defeat moved the team into a tie with Princeton and ended several impressive streaks for the program: 11 straight games, 19 consecutive conference games and 20 regular season home contests.

“I thought they (Harvard) were just the better team today,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith said. 

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Taking stock of the big three at the midway point of the Ivy League women’s basketball season

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With seven conference games in the books for every Ivy League women’s basketball team, the race for the regular season conference title has reached the halfway mark. 

The three teams picked in the preseason to contend for an Ivy League title – Princeton, Columbia and Harvard – have lived up to their billing, racking up big wins in the nonconference season and largely dominating the other five Ivy teams in league play.

Here’s where each of the big three stands as we head into the final five weeks of the Ivy League regular season:

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How Columbia women’s basketball routed Penn to stay atop the Ivy League

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For 10 minutes Saturday in New York, the Penn and Columbia women’s basketball teams had a real game going, with no evidence of which was undefeated in Ivy play and which had just one Ivy win.
But basketball games are 40 minutes long, and after the first quarter, the Lions roared past the Quakers for a 79-54 romp that kept Columbia atop the league standings and Penn near the bottom.

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Columbia women’s basketball rallies in the second half to defeat Princeton, 58-50

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It’s been 47 days since the Columbia women’s basketball team played a home game at Levien Gymnasium. On Monday night, the Lions made the most of their homecoming, besting Princeton, 58-50, in an Martin Luther King Jr. Day rivalry matchup in Morningside Heights.

It took some time for the Lions to find their footing and range, as Princeton jumped out to a 30-20 lead at the intermission.

The Lions shot only 31% in the first half, hitting 10 of 32 shots, while the Tigers capitalized on high-percentage inside plays, shooting 58.3% and outscoring the Lions 22-16 in the paint.

The Tigers were paced by Ashley Chea, who tallied 10 first-half points, and Parker Hill, who netted eight points on 4-for-4 shooting. Hill finished the game with a perfect stat line of 12 points on 6-f0r-6 shooting.

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Columbia women’s basketball outlasts San Francisco, 81-79

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In a game that saw 13 lead changes and eight ties, Columbia women’s basketball pulled away in the final 40 seconds to come away with a tough 81-79 victory over San Francisco Wednesday.

The win gets the Lions to 7-3 and back on track after a 77-61 defeat at Duke this past Sunday, while the loss puts the Dons at 2-5 on the season.

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Columbia women’s basketball comeback falls just short, 72-68, in NCAA Tournament loss to Vanderbilt

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The Columbia women’s basketball team didn’t defeat Vanderbilt in its first-ever NCAA appearance, but it made history and a lot of fans across the nation this week. (Photo by Columbia Athletics)

Columbia women’s basketball twice cut a 10-point second-half deficit to two, but the Lions couldn’t make that final push to get ahead of Vanderbilt and lost the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament game, 72-68, at the Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va. Wednesday evening.

Winning the First Four matchup between two No. 12 seeds, the Commodores move on to face No. 5 seed Baylor on Friday, while the historic Columbia season comes to a close.

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Ivy League Tournament: Women’s press conference highlights

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If it’s not on the MTA map, it should be (Photo: Rob Browne)

NEW YORK – The opening day of the Ivy League Tournament brought the four women’s teams to Levien Gymnasium on the campus of Columbia University.

Below are highlights of the press conferences and links to the videos. (Check out the game previews from Steve Silverman)

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2023-24 IHO Women’s All-Ivy Awards

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The Ivy League announced its major women’s awards Tuesday, but we know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for: Ivy Hoops Online’s 2023-24 All-Ivy Awards, as determined by IHO’s contributors:

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LISTEN: Q&A with Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith

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(Photo by Erica Denhoff)

Editor’s note: Columbia women’s basketball coach Megan Griffith held an in-depth press conference call with reporters Thursday ahead of Saturday’s sold-out Levien Gym showdown between Ivy second-place squad Columbia (18-5, 9-1 Ivy) and first-place No. 25 Princeton (20-3, 10-0), including Ivy Hoops Online contributors Rob Browne, George Clark, Richard Kent and Steve Silverman.

Part 1 – Griffith discusses where she sees her team having an advantage versus the Tigers, how the game is a litmus test and more:

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Thoughts on the upcoming showdown between No. 25 Princeton and Columbia women’s basketball

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The No. 25 Princeton women’s basketball team travels to New York City on Saturday to face the Columbia Lions in a marquee showdown at Levien Gymnasium at 2 p.m. Here are three thoughts on the most anticipated clash of the season so far in the Ivy League:

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