Women's Basketball Can't Handle Ivy Elite

The Lions battled the two best teams in the Ivy League down to the wire this weekend, but with four losses in its last five games and its Ivy title hopes all but gone, oh-so-close has become not good enough for the Light Blue.

The Columbia women’s basketball team had real opportunities to beat both Harvard and Dartmouth this weekend, as the Lions had the ball trailing by four points with less than a minute to play in each game. But poor clock management combined with tough defenses resulted in two Columbia losses, 62-58 to Harvard on Friday and 59-56 to Dartmouth on Saturday.While Saturday’s game was close throughout, Friday’s game saw Harvard jump out to a quick 13-4 lead, thanks to six points from senior Reka Cserny. Columbia cut Harvard’s margin to 17-16 with 11:24 remaining in the first half, but allowed 10 unanswered points over a stretch of almost eight minutes to take a 27-16 lead.

“Before the game we knew they were going to have their runs,” Lions head coach Tory Verdi said. “We said that when they do make those runs we can’t just fold; we’ve got to continue to fight back.”

The entire game was an uphill battle for the Lions, whose only lead of the contest came in the first minute of action. But with 15:55 remaining in the game and Columbia trailing 41-28, the Light Blue began a 13-0 run which included three consecutive three-pointers, two from Sue Kern and one from Sue Altman. The ensuing euphoria at Levien was short-lived, however, as the Crimson answered with a three-point play of its own, and then scored the next five points to make the score 49-41 with 9:15 remaining. Harvard extended its lead to 59-49 with just under four minutes remaining, but the Lions refused to quit, cutting the lead to four with 40 seconds to go. Columbia had the chance to come within two with 19 seconds left, but an Altman three was off the mark, ending the Lions’ comeback hopes.

“I was really proud of our team and the way they handled themselves. They never stopped working through the course of a 40 minute game,” Verdi said. “But when you have a player like Reka [Cserny], she’s a pretty good player and she was on the bench while we tied it up, but then as soon as we tied it up, they subbed and she came out on the floor.”

During Harvard’s crucial 10-2 run after Columbia had tied the game, Cserny scored seven of her game-high 26 points and had her way against the Lions post players. Playing without 6’3” senior center Edytte Key, Columbia had to resort to a zone defense against Cserny in an effort to push her out of the paint. Exceptional Harvard passing, however, rendered this defensive scheme futile, as Cserny and others continually made the extra pass, and Crimson perimeter players knocked down their open shots.

“They tried to double the ball whenever I got it,” Csnery said, “but we always talk about the extra pass that we have to make and we made our open shots tonight.”

In defeat, Altman played her best game of the season, scoring 20 points and grabbing eight rebounds while infusing the Lions with tremendous energy.

“Every once in a while I feel like I just want to take it,” said Altman. “I’m sort of, like, by nature, a bull in a china shop.”

The Lions would need all of that energy and more the following night against Dartmouth (13-8, 9-0 Ivy). Trailing by just three at half-time, the Lions, led by a career-high 19 points and 17 rebounds from senior forward Adia Revell, cut the lead to two with 1:25 remaining in the game. However, Big Green sophomore center Elise Morrison scored three of Dartmouth’s next five points, and Columbia was once again unable to come through in the clutch. Morrison, who corralled 10 rebounds and led all scorers with 21 points, is another in a long list of post-players whom the Lions have been unable to contain this season. Although she played in the high-post for most of the game, she menaced the Lions with her passing ability and jump hook.

“Morrison can just dominate the paint, and what we tried to do was just drop off [guard Fatima Kamara] who’s more of a penetrator,” Verdi said. “We were just crowding the paint a little bit, trying to meet her in transition and push her off the block.”

Though an improvement over Columbia’s first meetings with Harvard and Dartmouth which took place January 28-29 and resulted in two double-digit Lions’ losses, this weekend’s action will be no easier on Columbia’s record. Nevertheless, as the stretch run commences with rematches next week against Princeton and Penn, the Lions can certainly take solace in the fact that they hung around for so long with the two best teams in the Ancient Eight.

“I think what we take away from [this weekend’s games] is that we know we can play the best teams in our conference and win,” Verdi said. “We have to get better in some areas, we have to clean some things up but if you think about what these kids have been through, I’m just proud.”