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YOUR 2026 WBIT CHAMPIONS#ElevateTheGame pic.twitter.com/0BFaAWw9Rl
— Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament (@wbitwbb) April 2, 2026
A wire-to-wire win to cap an even greater wire-to-wire triumph.
That’s what No. 4 Columbia women’s basketball delivered Wednesday night in Wichita, Kan., by holding off No. 1 Brigham Young, 81-64, to win the WBIT Championship.
Columbia never trailed, wrapping a five-game tournament tear during which it led for 190 minutes and 43 seconds out of a possible 200.
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.
With Harvard up 56-49 with 39 seconds left in regulation, a quarterfinal WBIT win looked inevitable and many Wisconsin fans could be seen heading to the exit of the Kohl Center.
The Badgers, though, had faith in themselves, hitting big shots and forcing multiple Crimson turnovers to improbably send the game into overtime.
Wisconsin held onto a one-point lead with three seconds left on the scoreboard when 5-foot-2 senior guard Ronnie Porter was called for a foul against Harvard’s Abigail Wright that would send the junior forward to the line for two free throws.
Given an extra challenge call in overtime, the Badgers’ coaching staff asked for a review and the call was ultimately reversed, sending the home team and their fans into a frenzy.
After graduate guard Destiny Howell sank two free throws, Harvard junior guard Karlee White had one last chance to send the game into double overtime, but her three-pointer from the top of the key hit high off the backboard and the Crimson season ended with a 64-61 defeat.
Had Harvard won, it would have faced Columbia in a WBIT semifinal matchup after the Lions, as a No. 4 seed, topped No. 3 California on the road, 74-68, after the Harvard-Wisconsin game Thursday night.
Columbia held off the Golden Bears by finishing the game on an 8-2 run in the final 2:06 after the hosts pulled ahead at 67-66, a run strung together with key shots from junior guard Riley Weiss and senior guard/forward Perri Page. Those two combined to deliver 46 of Columbia’s 74 points, setting up the Lions to face Wisconsin in a semifinal showdown in Wichita, Kan. Monday at a time to be determined.
Immediately after losing to Harvard women’s basketball in the Ivy League semifinal, Columbia senior forward Perri Page said in no uncertain terms, “We are winning the WBIT. I can tell you that right now.”
Two games in, Columbia are more than backing up Page. After demolishing St. John’s 74–26 at home on Thursday, the Lions (22–8, 11–3 Ivy) romped past North Dakota State (29–5, 15–1 Summit), 86–57, in Columbia’s first-ever trip to the Peace Garden State.
“Our team has done a great job of turning the page,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith told ESPN+ after the game.
Harvard, which dispatched Columbia from the Ivy League Tournament after spoiling the latter’s Ivy League title pursuit late in the season, took care of business at Lavietes Pavilion to advance from the WBIT’s second round simultaneously Sunday, holding Eastern Kentucky to just two first-quarter points en route to a 63-34 win.
After two straight losses to Harvard women’s basketball derailed Columbia from regular and postseason Ivy League titles, senior guard Perri Page made her feelings known moments after being knocked out of the Ivy League Tournament.
“We all got to be bought in and go all into whatever we do,” the First Team All-Ivy and Defensive Player of the Year told assembled media last Friday night. “We are winning the WBIT. I can tell you that right now.”
Page and her teammates put the rest of the tournament on notice Thursday night, jumping out to a quick lead and cruising to a 74-26 rout of St. John’s at Levien Gymnasium.
The opening-round win improves the No. 4-seeded Lions record to 21-8 (11-4 Ivy League) on the season and a game on the road at North Dakota State, the No. 1 seed in their quadrant, on Sunday at 2 p.m. on ESPN+.
For its part, Harvard notched a comfortable WBIT opening-round home win of its own simultaneously Thursday night, dispatching Navy, 73-52. The win for the Crimson (19-11, 10-4) over the Midshipmen (22-9, 15-2 Patriot) set the victors up for a second-round matchup hosting Eastern Kentucky at a time to be determined Sunday.
Just a week after a riveting come-from-behind victory for Harvard women’s basketball over Columbia, the two sides will meet again in an Ivy League Tournament semifinal matchup.
With two minutes left in last week’s loss to Princeton women’s basketball, Harvard junior Karlee White took a huge hit to her right knee, the same one that was injured against Boston College in November, and the remainder of her season was in serious doubt.
With the Ivy League calendar nearing the home stretch, league leader Columbia made the drive up to Hanover to defeat last-place Dartmouth and dispatched the Big Green with ease Saturday, 81-42.
Columbia wasn’t going to let lightning strike twice.
Two weeks after the women’s basketball team lost to Penn in West Philly, it put on a showcase of smothering defense, consistently found the open shooter in the lane or on the perimeter, withstood a Penn comeback and won comfortably at home Saturday, 69-56, at Levien Gym.
Columbia women’s basketball dominated Cornell in their second matchup of the season, 80–55, Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena.