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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.
Another great day in the books at Columbia University and Levien Gymnasium.
Four good press conferences, two very good semifinal games and lots of tasty food (including pizza!) in the media room. It’s really hard to beat a day like that.
Some things of note from an Ivy hoops Friday:
NEW YORK – In front of a partisan, sold-out crowd at Levien Gymnasium Friday, Ivy League Player of the Year Abbey Hsu used a 20-point, 14 rebound performance to lead her No. 2 Columbia Lions over No. 3 Harvard, 63-61, to set up a long-awaited final showdown with Princeton on Saturday night.
If Hsu, head coach Megan Griffith and the rest of the Lions can slay the Tigers, the program will earn its first-ever Ivy League Tournament title, as well as its inaugural berth in the NCAA Tournament.
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:
Columbia women’s basketball, which clinched a slot in the Ivy League Tournament earlier in the weekend, used an 11-0 run late in the fourth quarter to pull away from Harvard in a 71-63 win in a nationally televised game at a sold-out Lavietes Pavilion Sunday afternoon.
The Lions (18-5, 9-1 Ivy) swept the season series from the Crimson and remain in sole possession of second place, one game behind No. 25 Princeton with four games left in the regular season. Despite the defeat, Harvard (14-9, 7-3) maintains its hold on third place, two games over Brown, but its chances at the No. 1 seed are quickly slipping away.
It wasn’t the prettiest game, but Columbia women’s basketball still cruised to an 82-53 victory over Cornell Saturday afternoon at Levien Gymnasium.
With the team’s ninth straight win, the Lions (11-4, 2-0 Ivy) are undefeated in league play and tied with Princeton and Brown at the top of the standings. Cornell (6-8, 0-2), meanwhile, is winless in the conference and knotted up with Yale and Dartmouth at the bottom of the table.
In last year’s regular season finale, Columbia clinched its first-ever Ivy League title at home but was kept on its heels by Cornell. The Lions had to go an extra five minutes for the historic victory. The difficult win dropped the Lions’ NET rating and moved them to the No. 2 seed in the Ivy League Tournament.
With a quick turnaround on Monday against Yale and a showdown at Princeton set for next Saturday, Columbia looked to avoid a repeat of last year’s Empire State battle.
While the Columbia campus is divided over global events, most are united over the performance of the school’s athletic programs.
On Sunday, the women’s soccer team faced Rutgers in front of a raucous crowd during its NCAA Tournament first-round victory. Two days later, the Lions’ faithful (and Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris) packed Levien Gymnasium as the women’s basketball team welcomed Kara Lawson and Duke, the first time a top-25 team ever visited Morningside Heights.
Megan Griffith’s Light Blue squad went toe-to-toe with the No. 22 Blue Devils the entire evening but came up short in a 66-62 defeat.
Despite overcoming a 17-point deficit in the third quarter, the Columbia women went down in defeat in Monday night’s seasoner opener against Stony Brook, 85-73, at the Island Federal Credit Union.
Thanks to the graduation of eight players, including starters Kaitlyn Davis, Jaida Patrick and Hannah Pratt, the 2022-23 Ivy League co-champions and WNIT finalists entered the evening with more uncertainty than they had the last several years.