Columbia drops season-high 80 points in win over Penn

A powerful offense on Friday night, and a stingy defense on Saturday night, led to two competitive games for the Columbia women’s basketball team. But the Lions (16-10, 7-5 Ivy) finished the weekend with just one victory.

Propelled by a barrage of 3-pointers and junior forward Judie Lomax’s game-high 19 points, Columbia cruised to an 80-61 win over Penn on Friday. With the victory, the Lions achieved their first sweep of the Quakers since the 1988-1989 season, and assured themselves of a record of .500 or better in Ivy League play.

The Lions opened the game with a 7-2 run and held a 17-7 advantage, after just seven minutes of action. With 6:20 left in the first half, a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Melissa Shafer, gave Columbia a 24-14 lead. Shafer hit two more treys before the intermission, to complete a 3-for-3 night from beyond the arc, foreshadowing the onslaught of Columbia 3-pointers to come.

After a back-and-forth start to the second half, junior guard Kathleen Barry sank a trey, to give the Lions a 45-33 lead. Her shot started a string of six Columbia 3-pointers over a three-minute span. Barry made two more treys during that stretch, to join Shafer in a 3-for-3 showing from downtown, while senior guard Sara Yee, senior guard Danielle Browne, and junior center Lauren Dwyer each hit a 3-pointer. Meanwhile, Penn (1-24, 0-11 Ivy) scored only four points.

By the end of their run, the Lions had a 23-point cushion with just under 14 minutes to play, and had erased all possibilities of a Penn comeback. On a night on which Columbia bombarded its opponent with outside shots, it was only fitting that a 3-pointer later in the half—this time from sophomore guard Mary Beato—gave the Lions a 25-point advantage, their greatest of the matchup.

“Anytime you’re going to shoot the three-ball at a 60 percent clip, if you take enough, you’re going to put points on the board,” Columbia head coach Paul Nixon said. “But I thought the key to that was that we took open threes.”

The Lions shot 12-for-20 from 3-point range, with Barry and Shafer leading the attack. Overall, Barry and Shafer each contributed 13 points.

After scoring a season-high 80 points against Penn, Columbia took on league-leading Princeton (23-2, 11-0 Ivy) on Saturday. The Lions looked like a first-place team themselves, showing their toughness and talent, while battling the Tigers to a 29-29 halftime draw. A second-half Princeton run ultimately shifted the momentum in the Tigers’ favor, and led to a 69-57 Princeton victory.

Columbia put the first points on the scoreboard, with a trey from Barry, but sophomore guard Lauren Edwards responded with a layup for Princeton. After the two teams exchanged several baskets, a Barry three-point play gave Columbia a 19-16 lead.

While the Lions held a 21-16 advantage with 9:27 to go, a 7-0 Princeton rally gave the Tigers a two-point lead with 7:45 left. But Columbia did not falter. Despite several missed field goals, the Lions took a 29-27 lead with less than two minutes until the intermission. Freshman forward Niveen Rasheed, attempted to tie the game with a transition layup for Princeton, but an authoritative block by Browne prevented the easy shot.

“I was trying to get back [on defense] and trying to give my team some momentum,” Browne said. “It had the effect I hoped it would.”

Nevertheless, Princeton eventually knotted the score on an Edwards layup, with four seconds to play, and Columbia could not get another shot off before halftime.

Edwards continued to shine in the second half, giving the Tigers a 40-34 lead, after sinking an open 3-pointer with 13:56 remaining. A Lomax jumper for Columbia made the score 41-38 in favor of Princeton, but the Tigers then went on a 6-0 run, to take a nine-point lead. From there, Princeton kept the game just out of Columbia’s reach, en route to its 11th Ivy League win.

“I thought in the first half, we played not to lose, and I thought in the second half, we played to win,” Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart said. “That’s a big difference.”

Edwards led all scorers with 23 points, on 11-of-18 shooting, while Lomax and Browne each scored 15 points for Columbia. The Lions held Rasheed, who torched them for 27 points earlier this year, to eight points on 3-of-11 shooting.

Columbia finishes the season by hosting Yale on Mar. 5 and Brown on Mar. 6.