With New Coach, Lions Get a Split

As they took the court on Friday night, Columbia’s women’s basketball team appeared to be unaffected by the sudden resignation of their head coach Traci Waites just one day earlier, holding on to a sizable advantage to beat Yale 68-58. However, the Lions ran out of gas the following night, when they fell 68-44 at Brown.

For the foreseeable future, though, it is Waites’s unexpected departure that is likely to be the primary concern for this team. In preparation for this weekend’s roadtrip, acting head coach Salvatore Verdi tried to keep the team focus inside the court.

“I told [the players], you’ve worked so hard thus far this season,” Verdi said. “Our goal is to win the Ivy League championship, and our goals haven’t changed.”

The Lions began Friday’s game with a burst of energy and strong defense. Columbia forced nine turnovers, including six in over a 2:25 stretch, and built up a sturdy 15-5 lead with 9:10 remaining in the first half. Yale closed the gap to 19-8 with 5:20 to go after two free throws by senior captain Morgan Richards, but the Light Blue finished out the opening period on a 10-4 run, extending their advantage to 29-13 at the break.

Columbia was driven to success in the first half by its frontcourt—senior forward Adia Revell and classmate center Edytte Key each had eight points within the first 20 minutes of play. Yale’s 6’3” sophomore center Erica Davis’s five points led a Bulldogs team which shot just 16.7 percent in the first half.

The second half against the Bulldogs began like the first had ended, with the Lions continuing their offensive and defensive domination. They steadily increased their advantage, and led by as much as 24 points after Revell made a lay-up with just under five minutes remaining. Columbia experienced an offensive drought over the next 3:33, during which they failed to connect on a field goal. The Light Blue withstood a late Yale rally, though, and held on for the 68-58 victory.

Two Lions had double-doubles—Revell had 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Key scored 12 and brought down 11. Fellow seniors Nicole Lesko and Sue Altman also scored in the double digits, but the main story of this game was Columbia’s defense.

“We came out and we pressured the ball,” Verdi said. “We knew that Yale likes to go inside-out and we thought that if we pressured their guards they wouldn’t be able to make lob passes to their post players. We felt that we wanted to dictate the tempo and let our defense make our offense.”

The Lions were able to score freely and their 68 points against Yale represent their third-highest output on the season. However, that scoring prowess and the explosive energy that sparked them against Yale evaporated on Saturday night when Brown held Columbia to just 25 percent shooting—down from a respectable 40 percent on Friday night—on its way to an easy 68-44 victory.

Early in the game, the two teams stayed close, and the Lions trailed by just two after a Revell lay-up halfway through the first. The Bears answered with a 7-0 run capped by two jumpers by senior center Holly Robertson and took a 30-20 lead into the locker room.

From the opening of the second half Brown put the game away, sprinting to a 17-6 run over the next 7:26 to take a commanding 21 point lead. Columbia tried to fight back, scoring a quick nine points of its own on the back of a jumper by Altman and three-pointers from Lesko and senior guard Susan Kern, but the team had simply run out of steam.

“The kids played very hard,” Verdi said. “They may have been a little tired, but the difference tonight was that the ball wasn’t going in, whereas it did against Yale. It was just one of those nights.”

Contributing to the poor shooting night was the Lions’ continual reliance on three-pointers, even when they weren’t falling. For the game, Columbia connected on just four of its 21 shots from long range.

“[Brown] played zone, so our guards penetrated, kicked it out and we were open,” Verdi said. “The bottom line is that there was just a lid on the rim.”

The combination of Robertson and junior guard Sarah Hayes led the Bears, as each exceeded her season averages in both points and rebounds. Hayes finished with nine rebounds to go along with her game-high 20 points, and Robertson collected 15 points and 11 rebounds.

For Columbia, Revell again led the Lions in scoring with 12 points, while senior guard Sue Altman posted 11 points of her own, going 4-5 from the chairy stripe. Despite several individual high numbers, though, the Lions only managed to bank 15 of their 60 shots from the field.

“[Brown] played very well tonight,” Verdi said. “They were able to get the ball to Robertson, and she did a good job posting up.”

After a two week stint on the road and the dust still settling from Waites’s departure, the Lions will return home next week to host Penn and Princeton on Friday and Saturday nights.