CU Battles Back Against Big Green, Falls Short to Crimson

In a weekend of incredible comebacks, the magic could not last two nights for the Columbia women’s basketball team (8-14, 5-3 Ivy). After overcoming a double-digit deficit to beat Dartmouth (8-14, 5-3 Ivy) on Friday, the Lions put forth a valiant effort, but were unable to replicate their success against Harvard (13-9, 6-2 Ivy) the next night.

The Light Blue entered Friday’s matchup riding a three-game win streak, but had trouble getting its offense going against the Big Green. Dartmouth scored the first six points of the game, with Columbia’s first two coming with 16:11 left in the first half.

The Lions eventually found their shooting touch—with just over five minutes left in the period, Columbia held a six-point advantage. Of course, Dartmouth had entered this game in a three-way tie for first place in the league standings and was not about to let Columbia hurt its chances. The Big Green went on a 10-4 run and at halftime, the score was tied at 24.

Dartmouth’s offense continued to heat up during the second half as the Big Green built an 11-point lead with 10:48 to play. Columbia seemed to have lost all control of the game.

“We like to get up and down the floor and put points on the board,” head coach Paul Nixon said. “When we’re struggling offensively, that usually indicates to me that the other team is dictating things in terms of the tempo and the style of play, so I was very frustrated.”

After a Columbia time-out, however, Brittney Carfora came through with a trey to get the Lions back on track. Michele Gage, who made only one basket in the first half, connected on a shot from behind the arc to cut Dartmouth’s advantage to seven points. With 6:04 left in the game, she hit a three-pointer that cut the Big Green’s lead to just one. She finished with 11 points.

“I didn’t shoot particularly well, but I did keep shooting,” she said.

At the 3:36 mark, sophomore point guard Sara Yee made a jump shot, and the Lions retook the lead, 51-50. With Columbia clinging to a three-point advantage in the final 10 seconds, Dartmouth had several chances to tie the game but could not, and the Light Blue came away with a 58-55 victory.

The Lions were unable to maintain this momentum the next night, as Harvard scored the first 11 points of the game. After four minutes of play, sophomore guard Danielle Browne made a layup to give the Light Blue its first basket, but the team could not climb out of its hole. Despite a 5-0 Columbia run at the close of the period, Harvard held a comfortable 21-point lead at halftime.

“The first half, we just didn’t have an attacking mentality,” Gage said. “We were content to settle for basically nothing.”

Unlike previous seasons, however, the Lions would not let the Crimson maintain this advantage for long. With 17:15 to play and Harvard up by 22 points, sophomore point guard Sara Yee made two free throws to ignite a 36-14 Columbia rally. Cragg scored all eight of her points during this run, including the layup that tied the game for the first time with 6:24 left in regulation.

“We just had to battle to get back in the game, and that’s what we did,” she said.

Despite outscoring the Crimson by 13 points in the second half, however, the Lions could not make up for their lackluster first period and fell, 73-65.

“Our team came back out in the second half and refused to throw in the towel,” Nixon said. “They put themselves in a position going down the stretch to possibly win the game and just weren’t able to make enough plays to pull it out. If we had played any kind of quality basketball in the first half, we would’ve had a great chance to win the game.”

Columbia will have its next shot at victory this weekend, as the Light Blue travels to Brown and Yale.