Light Blue unable to rebound, fall to Princeton and Penn

With only five games remaining in the season, Columbia (2-21, 0-9 Ivy) is still trying to find its first Ivy League victory. Struggling in this weekend’s matchups against Princeton (19-4, 9-0) and Penn (10-13, 3-6 Ivy), the Lions fell to the Tigers, 86-46, and to the Quakers, 61-41.

“This is not what we were hoping for this weekend. Last weekend we took a step forward, but in the two games this week, we took a step back,” head coach Paul Nixon said.

The Light Blue opened its four-game homestand in a rematch with Princeton. In their first matchup, the Lions’ first Ivy League game of the season, Princeton crushed the Light Blue, 94-35. This time, Columbia quickly went up, 2-0, with a jumper from senior guard Melissa Shafer. The Tigers struck back, going on a 18-2 run to take an 18-4 lead. The Lions struggled offensively, with no player scoring more than six points, and turned the ball over 17 times in the first half alone.

The Lions couldn’t regain their footing even as Princeton’s starters were pulled out to give the Tigers’ younger bench players more exposure. Princeton’s bench came up big, with six non-starters playing at least 10 minutes and collectively scoring 42 points. The Lions also struggled largely due to their inability to assert themselves on the boards—they were outrebounded, 52-27, by the Tigers.

“[Princeton’s] size definitely had an impact on getting rebounds,” Columbia junior guard Tyler Simpson said. “I wanted to beat Penn even more after losing to Princeton.”

Columbia hoped to get its first Ivy League victory of the season the following night over the Quakers. But much like in the game against Princeton, the Lions struggled in large part due to their inability to rebound.

The game started off with Penn playing strong, and the Lions found themselves facing an early 12-6 deficit. However, the Light Blue went on an 11-0 run, capitalizing on three steals to go up, 17-12. Penn chipped away at the Lions’ lead and led the Lions, 28-21, with 2:28 remaining in the first half.

“There were opportunities,” senior guard and captain Jazmin Fuller said. “We didn’t continue to push it off, particularly in the first half. We really needed to take advantage of those opportunities.”

Columbia looked to gain momentum back at the end of the half. When sophomore guard Taylor Ward tried to create a fastbreak opportunity with 10 seconds left in the first half, the Quakers’ defense stopped her to keep the score at 28-21 going into the break.

The Lions hoped to open the second half strong and cut into the Quakers’ seven point lead. However, Penn senior forward Jess Knapp struck first just 13 seconds into the second half, as Penn went up by 9. The Quakers proceeded to go on a 17-4 run as Penn’s star guard, Alyssa Baron, scored 11 of her 25 points.

“We weren’t hustling hard enough, and we weren’t answering their points. We didn’t really answer with anything,” Simpson said.

Overall, the Quakers almost doubled the Light Blue’s rebound total, 41-21. The Lions only had one offensive rebound in the first half and failed to get their first rebound of the second half until more than five minutes in.

“Our rebounding went from bad to worse from the first to the second half,” Nixon said.

The Lions closed out the game struggling to bring the margin below 20 points. Penn’s dominance in rebounding showed as they outscored the Lions on second-chance points, 20-3, for the game. As the game clock counted down, the Lions took their 21st loss of the season.

“It all comes back to us being able to put the ball in the basket. That is the name of the game,” Nixon said. “We have to do that better next weekend and all our remaining games.”