Columbia beats Princeton in thriller to take sole possession of first place in Ivy League

PRINCETON, N.J. — Columbia returned to its bench Saturday night before the fourth quarter trying to catch its collective breath and stop the bleeding.

Most of the 2,431 people in the crowd at Jadwin Gymnasium were rooting for the Lions’ demise. With the way Princeton bullied Columbia in the third quarter to take a six-point lead, it felt like the Tigers fans would have their way.

The next 10 minutes, however, would decide who would go to sleep in sole possession of first place in the Ivy League.

It’s the Lions who slept tight thanks to a 64-60 victory powered by a career-best 34 points from Riley Weiss, 16 of them coming in the fourth quarter.

Columbia coach Megan Griffith didn’t sugarcoat the importance of this rivalry game all week at practice. Why would she let up on her team now?

She sat in front of her team before the start of the fourth quarter, looked her players in the eyes and reminded them what Columbia basketball was all about.

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“Keep a blue head,” she told them.

That meant to stay relaxed regardless of what Princeton did. Focus on proper execution on both ends of the floor. She also wanted them to remember, “We’re still in control of our fate.”

Weiss sat stoically, but Griffith knew that her sophomore star was locked in, a believe confirmed in short time. Kitty Henderson had a good feeling, too, about what was about to transpire.

Henderson hit a dagger 3-pointer with 18 seconds left to back up Weiss that all but sealed the win.

The victory secured Columbia (19-5, 10-1 Ivy) the top spot in the Ivy League standings, snapped the Tigers’ 30-game home winning streak and made Columbia the first conference opponent to sweep Princeton (19-5, 10-2) in the regular season since 2016-17.

“We knew it was gonna be a dog fight. Practice was not easy this week,” Griffith said. “We were grinding on our team really hard and championship teams can handle that. I’ve had teams not handle that well but that’s how I know to get a team locked in and ready for a battle.”

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Columbia freshman Maria Arrebola, who played a bigger role this game with starter Marija Aviljas out with an ankle injury, drained a shot from deep to open the fourth quarter.

Weiss followed with a game-tying 3-pointer. The sophomore star didn’t let up through the final horn.

Weiss played pesky defense and forced Parker Hill to turn the ball over. She made layups, free throws and the right passes — whatever Columbia needed to secure the win.

Princeton tried to shoot its way back into the game. But it seemed Weiss and Columbia always had an answer.

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Weiss was driving to the basket but dished it off to Henderson, who was lurking on the left wing. The coaches had been begging Henderson to shoot the ball all game.

“This was my time, and I shot it, and it went in,” said Henderson, whose basket gave Columbia a 60-55 lead with 18 seconds left to play. “Princeton and us have a long rivalry and I wanted to beat them. So that shot was me putting the dagger in.”

Susie Rafiu and Henderson embraced and a “Let’s go Lions” chant broke out from the section that housed about 150 Lions fans behind the visitor’s bench.

Henderson had 14 points, three rebounds and four steals.

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She handed out three assists to surpass Columbia Hall of Famer Charlene Schuessler for the program’s all-time assist record, which stands at 459 and counting.

Give Princeton credit. The Tigers, who outsized the Lions, looked like orange-and-white traffic cones blocking access to Columbia’s basket.

Fadima Tall had 17 points and three rebounds and Ashley Chea added 16 points, four rebounds and four assists for Princeton.

But the speed of Weiss and Henderson was sometimes too hard to match.

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Saturday was exactly how Griffith wanted her team to respond after suffering a tough loss to Harvard last Sunday. Griffith attributed poor end-of-game execution as one of the reasons Columbia failed to get the job done against Harvard.

The film from that defeat haunted Columbia all week.

“I felt very ill watching it,” said Henderson, who called a players-only meeting Monday to rewatch the game. “It just wasn’t us. And I was really disappointed about how we played and so I said, ‘The team needs to get together and watch this and we need to be hard on each other.’”

When adversity hit against Harvard, Columbia fell apart. But on Saturday, the Lions stayed together and powered to a memorable win.

In sole possession of first place in the Ivy League, with three of the four bottom conference foes left on the Lions’ schedule, Saturday’s triumph could well have secured Columbia the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

The Lions host Brown on Friday and Yale on March 1 before their season finale against Cornell on March 8.