Sports | Basketball
Women’s basketball closes homestand with decisive victory over Yale
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By Selina Yang / Staff PhotographerA tenacious defensive effort throughout the game proved crucial to Columbia’s success.By Brian Lee • February 14, 2023 at 5:46 AM
By Brian Lee • February 14, 2023 at 5:46 AM
On Saturday, the women’s basketball team dominated Yale 74-46, closing out its five-game homestand in a bounce-back win following its loss to Princeton the week prior.
The contest against the Bulldogs (11-12, 5-5 Ivy) commemorated the program’s annual Play4Kay day to raise funds and awareness for cancer research, as well as International Students Day. Because of tie-breaker rules, the win keeps Columbia (19-4, 8-2 Ivy) still ahead of Princeton (17-5, 8-2 Ivy). However, the competition for the top seed remains a tight race as the regular season begins to draw to a close.
Head coach Megan Griffith, CC ’07, acknowledged the importance of playing for and representing causes beyond basketball.
“This is something that’s close to home for every single person in the world,” Griffith said, regarding the importance of Play4Kay. “We just want to make sure that we do what we can to bring awareness to our fans, to our community and to support those struggling and battling through [cancer].”
“I love to say that Columbia is the International Ivy,” Griffith added about International Students Day. “What New York brings to an international community, being a global city, is just so important from an educational standpoint. … We have people from all over the world that can come together and call this place home and that’s really reflected in our team,” she said.
The Lions attempted to set the tone early, capitalizing on a steal made on the opening play by senior guard Jaida Patrick, which was converted into a fastbreak layup. A couple of other timely baskets allowed the Light Blue to jump out to a quick lead, but some poor shooting allowed the Bulldogs to tie the game back up at 7 in the first. Columbia finished the quarter shooting just 11.1 percent from 3 and 33.3 percent from the field. Despite the lack of offensive explosiveness, the team stepped up to compensate on defense, holding Yale to just 3-13 shooting and forcing six turnovers, including two shot clock violations, in the first ten minutes of the game.
“That was something that I was really proud of our team for locking into,” Griffith said about the team’s defense. “That’s hard to defend over the course of 30 seconds. … So being more disciplined there was what mainly we were focused on this whole week, which I do think showed up today and our stats.”
The second quarter saw a return to form for the Light Blue, as the team went on a 14-0 run to outscore Yale 19 to 10 in the quarter. The team’s defense persisted, as the Bulldogs were only able to shoot 26.7 percent from the field in the second. The Lions never lost the lead throughout the entirety of the first half and entered halftime with a commanding 32-17 lead. Coming out of the locker room, the team picked up right where it left off, with strong all-around team play contributing to the lead ballooning to 25 points in the third.
Columbia continued its high-level play into the fourth quarter, with many members of the bench getting a chance to shine. Plays such as a steal into an assist followed by a block by first-year forward Susie Rafiu on back-to-back-to-back plays epitomized the Light Blue’s tenacity and depth en route to a decisive 74-46 win.
In the final quarter, junior guard Abbey Hsu rediscovered her shot after a relatively cold shooting night, hitting back-to-back threes to push the score to 60-36. Those threes bumped Hsu up to fourth place on Columbia’s all-time scoring list with 1,312 points, tying, then surpassing, 1,309 points set by Kathy Gilbert, CC ’91, in 1991. This upcoming weekend, Hsu will have a chance to pass the third-place mark of 1,337 points, set by Tori Oliver, CC ’17, in 2017.
“I’m not surprised that [Abbey] keeps getting better,” Griffith said. “I guess that’s the first thing to say. But the second part of it is her confidence in herself and her ability is the thing that’s really shifted … I feel like once the game went down to the second half, she was able to really step up and perform when she needed to.”
On a related note, senior guard Sienna Durr has the opportunity to surpass the 1,000-point career mark this upcoming road trip, as she stands just 36 points away from the milestone.
Statistically, several Lions made meaningful contributions on all aspects of the game. Hsu led the team in scoring with 19 points, while Patrick tallied 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Not to be outdone, senior forward Kaitlyn Davis put up 11 points, six rebounds, and three assists herself, and junior forward Paige Lauder also added nine points and eight rebounds.
“We responded well from a defensive standpoint,” Griffith said. “Holding [Yale’s] top two leading scorers to four points total and keeping them under 50, which I was really happy to see.”
Next Friday, the Lions will begin a three-game road trip with a back-to-back weekend. The team will play Harvard at 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 17, before traveling to Dartmouth for a contest at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. Both matches will be available online through ESPN.
Deputy Sports Editor Brian Lee can be contacted at brian.lee@columbiaspectator.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianSungbinLee.
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