Women’s Basketball Plays Host to Three Teams in Classic

The Columbia women’s basketball team will take part in the Tyler Ugolyn Columbia Classic on Friday night. The tournament is named after former Lion, Tyler Ugolyn, who was a victim of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Both the men’s and women’s teams will be competing in this eight-game tournament. The other participating teams on the women’s side are Navy, Long Island University, and Texas State. The women will first matchup against LIU.

The LIU Blackbirds are coming off a thrilling win, as they were able to beat St. Peter’s, 64-60, on Wednesday. Forwards Ashley Palmer and Chelsi Johnson are the leaders of the team. In the Blackbirds’ victory, Palmer was nearly perfect from the field, hitting seven shots on nine attempts—good for 18 points in the game. Palmer was also able to come down with seven rebounds. Johnson scored five times, totaling 14 points. She too was impressive on the glass, nabbing five rebounds.

Although the Blackbirds had impressive numbers from these two players, turnovers nearly cost them the game. LIU turned the ball over a total of 23 times. If the Blackbirds continue that sloppy play, the Lions could come away with a victory and advance to Saturday’s championship match, in which they will either meet Navy or Texas State.

Navy is riding a two-game win streak coming into this tournament, which it hopes will give them a boost to win against Texas State. Navy has beaten its previous opponents by demonstrating determination and aggression. In its most recent win against Winston-Salem, Navy’s Angel Myers elevated her team by scoring six of the last eight points. Two of those points came at the foul line with less than one second left in the game. Navy also grabbed 45 rebounds against Winston-Salem.

The Texas State Bobcats will be hungry for a victory after suffering difficult losses to both Drake and Iowa. Victoria Davis is leading the Bobcat offense. In the game against Drake, she scored a career-best 17 points. Davis is averaging 11.5 points for the season—the best on the team. The rest of the Texas team is not performing as well as Brown. In the previous game, Texas State shot a frightening 15-for-64 from the field. Additionally, the Bobcats could get nothing in the paint as they only scored two points down low in the entire contest. The Bobcats are looking to reverse this slump, starting at this tournament.

The Lions look to be very competitive in the tournament this weekend. Although they will face some tough competition, the Lions are a well-rounded team that should have an answer to any threat posed by these squads. the Light Blue will look to cause many turnovers against the Blackbirds. Thus far this season, junior guard Danielle Browne has been leading the Lions in steals. She has a total of eight in three games.

If Columbia faces Navy in its second contest, it will have to stay physical underneath the boards. Sophomore forward Judie Lomax and junior forward Chelsea Frazier have been leading the team in rebounds. The two players have combined for 57 of the 136 total rebounds. The Lions must also keep defensive pressure on the Bobcats if they face them. Additionally, the Light Blue will ensure that—which is deep—its offense is on its game. There are currently five Lions who are averaging above six points a game—Browne, Lomax, Frazier, sophomore center Lauren Dwyer, and freshman guard Melissa Shafer. This team has the opportunity to come out of the tournament as the champion.

The action starts Friday night at Levien Gymnasium at 6 p.m. with Columbia matching up against LIU.