After a tough loss to Harvard earlier in the week, Penn women’s basketball looked to right the ship against its big-city rival Columbia. Unfortunately for the Red and Blue, the Lions’ lethal three-point attack was too much to handle.
Penn fell to Columbia by a final score of 79-54. Columbia (14-4, 5-0 Ivy), the current queens of the Ancient Eight, entered the game with an unblemished Ivy League record. For Penn (10-8, 1-4) to upset the reigning Ivy League champions, it would take a total defensive effort to stop Columbia’s perimeter-shooting prowess.
“The mental piece of the game is vital, and we’re learning that,” said coach Mike McLaughlin. “So before we do move on, I think we need to show [the team] film and how maybe this does not get away from you at certain parts of the game.”
The heart of a Quaker
Coming into the game having lost three of their last four outings, Penn looked to come out firing — and indeed it did. The Quakers scored the first two buckets of the game — leading to a 5-0 start, punctuated by a three-pointer from sophomore guard Mataya Gayle. Columbia would miss their first five jump shots, three of which were from downtown.
After nearly four minutes of play, Columbia finally got on the board with a three-pointer from guard Riley Weiss, who single-handedly went on to keep the Lions within reach of the Quakers for the rest of the quarter — scoring three three-pointers. Both teams continued to exchange buckets from deep, with the Quakers winding up winning the quarter by one point, 16-15.
Letting it fly from deep
Turnovers, swarming defense, and a three-point barrage: In a foreshadowing of things to come, Penn started their opening possession of the second quarter backed up outside the three-point line after a strong defensive effort by Columbia. On the ensuing possession, Columbia took their first lead of the game, 18-16, after a corner three-pointer by guard Cecelia Collins.
With 9:03 remaining in the second quarter, junior guard Simone Sawyer made a layup to tie the game at 18-18. However, the Red and Blue’s momentum quickly stalled. The Quakers didn’t score another point until 8:10 remaining in the third quarter — a whopping 11 minutes later. With a run that extended into the second half, the Lions went on a colossal 26-0 run — a scoring spree that Penn simply just couldn’t stop. During the stretch, Penn committed a bevy of self-inflicted turnovers, while also surrendering a flurry of three-pointers to Columbia.
“Just the wheels came off,” McLaughlin said. “I called a timeout really early when it [went] to 20-18 because we had a bunch of bad possessions. … They made some shots and [we] just did not respond. It was a very poor response”
Against a suffocating Columbia defense, Penn simply couldn’t muster the same offensive momentum that it had in the first quarter, culminating in an airball to end the half.
“That was an extreme 26-0 [run], but that’s got to be 20-10,” McLaughlin added. “Disappointed the way we responded.”
Keeping the foot on the gas
After a scorching second quarter, Columbia started the third quarter with another three-pointer from Collins, once more at the top of the key. A few minutes in, the Quakers finally got back on the scoreboard with a layup by freshman guard Brooke Suttle. The Lions subsequently continued to pour it on, sinking a total of 12 three-pointers by the end of the game — five more than Penn. Weiss, who ended the match as the match-leading scorer with 25 points, accounted for half of the team’s three-pointers. More notably, Columbia finished the game shooting 48.3% from the field, a wide contrast from Penn’s 34.5% shooting.
In the fourth quarter, the Quakers continued to fight, going on a scoring run supported by steals and quick layups — but it wasn’t enough. Symbolic of how things have been going the entire afternoon for Columbia, Weiss went on to drain an and-one three-pointer, causing an uproar from the Columbia faithful.
In a continuing negative trend, the Red and Blue once again lost the rebounding battle in a deflating loss: 44-28 by the end of the game.
Next week, the Quakers travel to Providence, R.I. to take on Brown in an important matchup to keep their Ivy League tournament dreams alive. For McLaughlin, he sees the game as an opportunity for the team to showcase some of the things the team can improve upon.
“I want them to put it behind, but they need to learn first,” McLaughlin said. “Just thought at times [Columbia was] tougher around the rim than we were. I thought some of the things, the physicality piece, that we just need to adapt.”
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