Columbia women beat Princeton in thriller to stay in first in Ivy League

Columbia approached last month’s game against Princeton as it did most games.

The Lions didn’t put any unnecessary pressure on themselves to maintain their perfect Ivy League record.

But this time around?

The emotions and stakes were too high to ignore.

“This is a big one,” Columbia coach Megan Griffith told reporters after practice this week. “We know what the standings are.”

First place in the Ivy League — and potentially the conference’s regular-season title — was on the line Saturday when Columbia traveled to Princeton.

There was a moment when it felt like Columbia (19-5, 10-1 Ivy) was doomed.

The momentum swung heavily toward Princeton (18-6, 9-2) as the home crowd got more and more into the game in the third quarter.

The game was slipping away as Princeton took its largest lead of six points into the final quarter.

But Riley Weiss’ heroic 16-point fourth quarter changed the game’s trajectory and resulted in Columbia’s 64-60 thrilling win, which snapped Princeton’s 30-game home winning streak.

Weiss started the game similar to how she ended it. Weiss made two quick 3-pointers in the first quarter and helped give Columbia an early 10-2 lead.

In the fourth quarter, she drained the game-tying 3-pointer from the left wing — and she didn’t let up until the final horn sounded.

Weiss picked the pocket of Parker Hill and took it to the basket for what turned into a three-point play that gave Columbia a 49-44 lead.

Princeton tried to shoot its way back into the game.

But it seemed Weiss and Columbia always had an answer.

Weiss finished with a career-high 34 points, including five 3-pointers.

Kitty Henderson added 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and four steals.

Give Princeton credit, as the Tigers took Lions forward Susie Rafiu out of the game offensively with double teams.

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

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

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.

But when the game was in the balance late Saturday and after Princeton took a timeout, Weiss fed Henderson, who drilled a 3-pointer to give Columbia the 60-55 lead with 18 seconds left in the game.

Rafiu and Henderson embraced and a “Let’s go Lions” chant broke out from the section that housed about 100 Lions fans behind the visitor’s bench.

Princeton made it interesting. Cecelia Collins fouled Fadima Tall on her made 3-point field goal, which cut Columbia’s lead to two with four seconds remaining.

But Tall missed the free throw and Columbia secured the ball and Weiss made two free throws to ice the game with one second left.

Columbia is now in sole possession of first place in the Ivy League and, with three of the four bottom conference foes left on the Lions’ schedule, Saturday’s triumph could very 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.