Women's basketball readies to challenge Princeton's 30-game Ivy win streak on Saturday

Upper West Side NY

05 February, 2022

2:44 PM

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Columbia Daily Spectator BY ADAM LANG • FEBRUARY 3, 2022, 10:46 PM With the second half of the Ancient Eight women's basketball season kicking off this weekend, the Lions are looking to up their winning streak to nine games and achieve the longest winning streak in the program's history. Columbia women's basketball (15-3, 6-0 Ivy) plans to learn from last week's early struggle against Penn (7-11, 2-4 Ivy) and land a decisive victory against the Quakers on Friday, but the team's main challenge will be on Saturday against Princeton (14-3, 6-0 Ivy). As the only two undefeated teams left standing, Columbia and Princeton both want a victory at their first matchup this season to set the tone for two more potential matchups—including a potential championship battle in March to determine where the Ivy League trophy is headed. The Lions ended an 11-year losing streak to Penn last week, but it was not a pretty win. The Lions, who are averaging 71.2 points per game this season, scored just 16 points in the first half, failing to settle into a comfortable pace. Slow starts have been a problem against teams with a strong defense such as Yale and Penn—the Lions down at the half in both games. With one more week of practice and film analysis, the Lions look to dominate the game from the tip. "I think playing a team within a week, again, is actually really hard," first-year guard Kitty Henderson said. "[But] we know what works for us … and hopefully just make it what we should have made it last time, which is a lot less close." The Lions' main focus is now the Tigers. Historically, this has been a tough matchup for the Lions. They have not won a match against the Tigers since the 2007-08 season, and the overall record is 16-53. Statistically speaking, the Tigers are by far the best team in the Ivy League. Their points margin of 13.8 almost doubles the Lions' 7.7, and in conference play, they have been winning by a dominating 25 points on average. With the help of Bella Alarie, fifth overall pick in the 2020 WNBA draft, the Tigers have won 30 straight Ivy games. If the Light Blue can get the win, it will be the first Ivy league team to defeat Princeton since 2019. For the last six games, the Tigers have allowed just 44 points per game, leading the Ancient Eight in defense. The Lions have struggled against good defensive teams, so in a way, Friday's game against Penn might be a good indicator of how the Lions may perform on Saturday. As Henderson said, the Lions want to execute their offensive game plan the way they know they can. "It's just like any other game where we go into every game thinking the same thing: that it's Columbia versus Columbia. We'll be really locked in, but we're just excited to get another dub," Henderson said. If the Lions want to snatch Princeton's streak, they need to perform on defense. The Lions have allowed 53.2 points in conference play this season, second only to the Tigers and a significant improvement from the preseason games. Princeton's offense includes the league's leading scorer Abby Meyers, who averages 18.2 points per game, and Julia Cunningham, who ranks number five in scoring, adding another 14.1 points to the Tigers offense. Both players are sharpshooters beyond the arc: Meyers leads the league with 39.4 percent shooting, and Cunningham shot 45.5 percent in the last six games. "The coaches worked really hard to create scouts for us, and we just have to look into what they've put on the scout. … I think our defense is really, really good. So if we just all come together as a team and look into those principles," Henderson said. Head coach Megan Griffith also started her coaching career at Princeton. On Saturday, she looks to get her first career win against the Tigers. The game against Penn is on Friday, Feb. 4 at 6 p.m., and the game against Princeton is on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 5 p.m. Both games are away and will be broadcasted on ESPN Plus. Senior staff writer Adam Lang can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow Spectator Sports on Twitter @CUSpecSports. Founded in 1877, the Columbia Daily Spectator is the independent undergraduate newspaper of Columbia University, serving thousands of readers in Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and beyond. Read more at columbiaspectator.com and donate here.