Editor’s note: Here are Steve Silverman’s reactions to Ivy League All-Ivy awards for players and coaches for the 2024-25 women’s basketball season announced Tuesday. Ivy Hoops Online’s 2024-25 Men’s and Women’s All-Ivy Awards are soon to come.:
Kitty Henderson
Columbia women’s basketball sweeps Princeton, 64-60, to take control of the Ivy League title chase
Two minutes defined a season so far for the Columbia Lions. And for the Princeton Tigers.
Previewing another epic clash between Columbia and Princeton women’s basketball
Sole possession of first place in the Ivy League is on the line Saturday night when the Columbia Lions’ women’s basketball team travels to central New Jersey to face their biggest rival, the Princeton Tigers, at Jadwin Gymnasium. The game tips off at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPN+.
The clash provides Columbia (18-5, 9-1 Ivy) with an opportunity to regain control of the Ivy League regular season title chase after the Lions dropped a hard-fought battle to Harvard last week, 60-54, at Levien Gymnasium in Morningside Heights.
Princeton (18-5, 9-1) can also seize control of the Ivy race with a win and close out its home schedule on Saturday with a 12-0 record. The Tigers are currently riding a 30-game home-court winning streak, the longest such streak in the nation.
Who was the last team to defeat Princeton at home? You guessed it, the Columbia Lions. On Jan. 6, 2023, Megan Griffith’s squad strode into Jadwin Gym and took down the Tigers, 58-55, in an overtime thriller.
Harvard women’s basketball wins round two at Columbia, 60-54
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.
Taking stock of the big three at the midway point of the Ivy League women’s basketball season
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:
How Columbia women’s basketball routed Penn to stay atop the Ivy League
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.
Columbia women’s basketball rallies in the second half to defeat Princeton, 58-50
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.
Columbia women’s basketball claws past Penn, 74-59
The Columbia women’s basketball team opened the defense of its Ivy League title by putting Penn deep in a hole early on, watching as Penn charged back to take the lead at halftime, and then reclaiming the game comfortably, 74-59, Saturday at the Palestra.
“It’s a great first game for us to learn a lot,” Columbia head coach Megan Griffith told reporters afterward.
“We talked about making a statement,” Griffith said. “Regardless of who [the opponent] is, especially when you’re playing against, one, a good team, and, two, a really good coach.”
Columbia women’s basketball outlasts San Francisco, 81-79
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.
Ivy women’s basketball Media Day highlights
As the 2024-25 season quickly approaches, the Ivy League hosted its annual women’s basketball Media Day on Thursday. The three-hour event, hosted by Lance Medow, can be viewed on the conference’s YouTube channel.
Prior to the event, the league announced the results of its preseason poll.
Princeton, which has claimed the Ancient Eight title for the last six years, was picked first with 122 out of a possible 128 points and 10 first-place votes. Columbia, which has tied for the top spot in each of the last two seasons, came in second with 110 points and five first-place votes.
Harvard, which has finished the last two years in third placed, was tabbed for third in 2025, earning 101 points and one first-place spot.
Penn, the final participant in last year’s Ivy tournament, was picked fourth with 75 votes, while Brown, which finished last year tied with Penn for fourth, was four points back in fifth place.
Sixth place went to Yale, which was as high as third place in 2022, with 48 votes.
While Cornell and Dartmouth ended last season tied for seventh place, the Big Red got the nod for seventh in this year’s poll with 30 points and the Big Green were eighth with 19 points.
Below are highlights from this year’s virtual Media Day: