Harvard and Dartmouth Games Crucial to Ivy League Record

Last season, when Harvard and Dartmouth came to Levien Gymnasium and took on the Columbia women’s basketball team, they were facing a squad that was 0-4 in league play with no postseason aspirations. This year, the Crimson and Big Green face a surging and surprising Lions team that is off to its best start in program history.

Having won three games in a row and four of its last five, Columbia, just 3-11 in non-conference play, is 4-2 in the Ivy League, one game behind the first-place trio of Cornell, Harvard and Dartmouth. If the Lions want to continue this run toward the top, they can’t start anywhere else but with this weekend’s opportunity to defeat two of the league’s powers at home.

Historically, Harvard and Dartmouth have owned the Light Blue, as Harvard has never lost at Levien and has lost to Columbia only once ever. Dartmouth has won all but six meetings, losing only twice on the road.

“I expect both programs to operate by ‘If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,’” Lions head coach Paul Nixon said. “The coach at Harvard has been coming to Columbia every year since 1986-87 and has never left with a loss, so I don’t know why she’d change anything.”

But Nixon said the focus for his team has to be on repeating what’s been successful for them and replicating it regardless of who their opponents are.

The Lions are coming off a sweep at Penn and Princeton, in which senior Michele Gage and sophomore Danielle Browne sowed a new offensive vigor. Gage averaged 22 points and 9.5 rebounds over the weekend, earning her Ivy Player of the Week honors.

Browne has averaged 18 points and five assists over the past four games. However, she is anything but a jump shooter, and her slashing style may run into a brick wall this weekend.

“They’re huge,” Nixon said of Harvard. “It is a very big team. It does not show up in the stat sheet with blocked shots because they are not throwing people’s shots away. Their presence prevents people from attempting shots.”

The Crimson’s best players actually reside in its backcourt. Junior guard Emily Tay leads her team in scoring, with senior guard Lindsay Hallion following her.

But a quick glance at the stat sheet proves Nixon’s point. Harvard’s size has it second in the Ivy League in total defense at 63.4 points per game, first in field goal percentage defense at .391, and second in rebounding at 37.4 per game.

The team leading Harvard in two of those categories is Dartmouth. The Big Green is first in rebounding and points allowed per game. Dartmouth is a younger team than Harvard and is led by freshman forward Brittney Smith, who averages 10.1 points per game and leads the Ancient Eight in rebounding at 8.1 per game. Senior forward Sydney Scott and Brittney’s sister, sophomore forward Margaret Smith, join her in the frontcourt. The trio all rank in the top six in the league in rebounding.

While this may seem like an uphill battle for the Lions, their recent play leaves Nixon optimistic.

“We’ve won Ivy League games without winning the battle of the boards,” he said. “Hopefully we can do both.”

Columbia starts the weekend with Dartmouth at 7 p.m. on Friday and then concludes with Harvard at 7 p.m. on Saturday. Both games are at Levien Gymnasium.