Basketball Searches for Two More Ivy League Victories

Coming off a win against Cornell—picked to finish second in the Ivy Preseason Women’s Basketball Poll—the Lions (4-12, 1-1 Ivy) will face Yale (4-11, 2-0 Ivy) and Brown (1-15, 0-2 Ivy) at Levien Gymnasium in their first back-to-back league games of the season. Head coach Paul Nixon is confident that the Light Blue is ready to play its up-tempo game on consecutive nights, something the team prepared for with four sets of back-to-back games against non conference opponents earlier this season.

A team that likes to run will experience some fatigue so Nixon expects production from his bench. Last Saturday it contributed 17 points for the Lions, including key three-pointers from guards Katrina Cragg and Kathleen Roehrkasse towards the end of the first half that limited Cornell’s momentum. Center Meghan Harker also logged 24 minutes in the post for the Light Blue. This weekend, Nixon expects his substitutes to have a similar impact.

“We’ve already talked to the bench players,” he said, adding that they “will be prepared to come in and give us quality minutes.”

The Lions will not have room for error this weekend. Yale is the only team undefeated in conference play, with two wins against Brown. Sophomore guard/forward Melissa Colborne, the reigning Ivy Rookie of the Year, leads the Bulldogs in scoring with 15.3 points per game. Freshman forward Lindsey Williams, who leads Yale at 88.5 percent from the charity stripe, also leads the Bulldogs with 6.6 rebounds per game.

While Brown does not seem like as much of a threat to the Light Blue as Yale, the Bears will try for their first league win behind the efforts of Annesley O’Neal. The senior guard leads Brown with 7.4 points per game and has been the Bears’ high scorer in five of their seventeen games, including a 12-point performance in their most recent loss to Yale.

Columbia needs to continue playing a solid defense but limit its fouls if it wants to notch another two Ivy victories. In three of their past four games, the Lions have held their opponents to under 60 points. For the Light Blue, a team committed to the fast break, forcing turnovers will lead to scoring in transition, which was vital to last Saturday’s win.

“Right now the thing our team has been doing probably the most consistently well has been our defensive intensity,” Nixon said. “We’ve done a pretty good job of establishing our aggressiveness on the ball, working off the ball, and taking teams out of their offensive rhythm.”

The Lions meet Yale on Friday and Brown on Saturday. Tip-off for both games is scheduled for 7 p.m.