Lions overcome slow start in weekend victory

In its first game against Cornell this season, the Columbia women’s basketball team opened the first half with a quick burst of offense. The Lions (11-5, 2-0 Ivy) scored five unanswered points in the first two minutes of action, and added six points over the next three minutes. While they experienced minor scoring droughts throughout the half, the Lions used a 9-0 run midway through the period and solid inside-outside play in the final seven minutes of the half to reach 43 points by the intermission.

In Saturday’s rematch, Columbia got off to a slower start. Junior forward Judie Lomax opened the game with a layup for the Lions, but Columbia did not score again until four minutes had passed. After six minutes, Columbia had tallied only seven points.

While they initially struggled to put points on the board, the Lions eventually found their stride and beat the Big Red (5-10, 0-2 Ivy) by a comfortable margin for the second time this year. Columbia opened Ivy League play with a 68-44 win over Cornell, and completed its sweep of the Big Red with a 68-47 victory.

“I thought that it would be a much more challenging game the second time around,” Columbia head coach Paul Nixon said. “Obviously, [when] you play a team [in] back-to-back weeks, you expect adjustments to be made.”

Cornell switched from a zone defense to man-to-man for the rematch, stifling the Lions early, but not for long.

Sophomore guard Melissa Shafer came off the bench sooner than usual for the Lions when junior guard Kathleen Barry injured her left hand, and she provided some much-needed offense for Columbia in the first half. Her three-pointer with 15:52 remaining in the period gave the Lions their first points since Lomax’s first-possession layup. Shafer’s next trey—with 13:18 left in the half—gave Columbia a 12-4 lead. Her third and final three-pointer of the half put the Lions ahead of the Big Red by 18 points.

“Wow,” Nixon said, of Shafer. “She was a big spark off the bench for us—I mean, tremendous. … Her play was exactly what we’re hoping to get out of her.”

In 18 minutes of action, Shafer contributed 12 points on four-of-five shooting from three-point range. After a five-point showing in Columbia’s first meeting with Cornell, she was one of only two
Columbia players to score in double figures on Saturday.

While Shafer delivered from beyond the arc, it was Lomax who dominated the Lions’ offense in the rematch, leading all scorers and tying her career high with 30 points. After receiving all-Ivy first team honors last season, Lomax’s game has only improved. She followed her 17-point showing against Cornell on Jan. 16 by making 12 field goals—including several jumpers—and six of seven foul shots on Saturday, in a performance that garnered her Ivy League Player of the Week honors for the fourth time this season.

‘If we want to be successful and achieve the goals that we have for this team, then we’re all going to need to fill our parts,” Lomax said. “Free throws and outside shooting is something that I’m going to have to be able to step up and do.”

With a perfect Ivy record to defend, Columbia travels to Harvard on Jan. 29 and Dartmouth on Jan. 30.