NEW YORK — “Oh, you thought I was done?” blared out of the loudspeakers at Levien Gymnasium as the hype video for Columbia played on Monday night.
The song was HDBeenDope’s “Mamba,” and it continues, “No. Gotta face it, I’m the one.”
About two hours later, after the Lions had used a second-half comeback to beat Princeton 58-50, Columbia was indeed the one: the Ivy League’s last unbeaten team, alone in first place at 4-0. Princeton and Harvard, which are expected to be the Lions’ main challengers for the regular-season title, are both a game back at 3-1.
In other words, a year after Columbia got the first NCAA Tournament bid in its Division I history, it looks like it’s not done playing on a national stage.
Columbia was playing at home on Monday for the first time in 47 days, so the crowd of more than 2,200 was ready to explode at the slightest positive sign. And Princeton was in town for another installment of a rivalry that has grown enormously over the past several seasons, as Columbia has become an Ivy League power alongside the six-time defending champion Tigers.
But there were questions about both teams entering the 2024-25 season. It wasn’t clear what Columbia would look like without star guard Abbey Hsu, the program’s all-time leading scorer and a 2024 WNBA draft pick. The Lions were generally solid in the nonconference, going 9-4, but they lost both opportunities for head-turning wins, to Indiana on a neutral court and at Duke.
Meanwhile, Princeton graduated three senior starters, then lost junior guard Madison St. Rose to a torn ACL four games into the season. The Tigers now start four sophomores, and their flow was predictably choppy at first, especially defensively.
The Tigers’ inexperience showed at times in the nonconference. There was a season-opening loss at Duquesne and a 19-point loss at Portland in December in which the Tigers had 29 turnovers. But on Jan. 11, their defense locked down Harvard, who’d entered the game 12-1. That sent the message that Princeton would contend for another Ivy crown.
Columbia has replaced Hsu by committee, boasting arguably the conference’s best trio in senior guards Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins and sophomore guard Riley Weiss. Princeton, meanwhile, has leaned on sophomore guards Ashley Chea and Skye Belker.
“The advantage, I think, that we have against them right now is we have experience in all the right places,” Columbia head coach Megan Griffith told reporters postgame.
The guard battle delivered on Monday, even as Henderson, Weiss and Belker were all smothered at times by the opposing defense. Chea scored 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including an early stepback 3-pointer that was reminiscent of her game-winning shot against Harvard and a tough turnaround jumper with one second left on the shot clock in the third quarter. Eight of her points came in the first half, when Princeton used a late 15-4 run to establish a 30-20 lead at halftime. But Chea also had five turnovers in the game, which contributed to Princeton giving the ball away 24 times against Columbia’s pressure.
Collins was also a difference-maker, scoring a game-high 18 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Eleven of her points came in the second half, helping Columbia overpower the Tigers 38-20 after halftime. In the locker room at halftime, Griffith told Collins to run the offense, which allowed Collins to exploit mismatches and took some pressure off Henderson.
Columbia also clamped down defensively in the second half, and it converted better on Princeton’s miscues. Though Columbia forced more Princeton turnovers in the first half, 16 of its 18 points off turnovers came in the second half, as did 10 of its 14 second-chance points.
“First half, we played a lot like [Princeton] did,” Griffith said. “It was pretty ball, finesse, trying to get around people. And so the third quarter, we were like, ‘Y’all, we got to get physical. … Let’s impose our will.’”
“We all knew [the first half] wasn’t good enough on how we wanted to play,” Columbia junior forward Susie Rafiu told reporters postgame. “So I think [we were] just shifting, refocusing and reminding ourselves what we wanted to do and then actually executing it in that third. We all knew we could be better.”
Defense and guard play have often dictated this rivalry, but a new wrinkle emerged on Monday in the frontcourt. Rafiu had 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting, four steals and three rebounds, while Princeton senior Parker Hill had 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting and two blocks. That made Monday’s game the first in the rivalry since the COVID-19 pandemic canceled Ivy League teams’ 2020-21 seasons in which true forwards or centers from both teams scored in double figures.
Both teams entered the game believing they had the advantage in the frontcourt. Princeton knew it had size with the 6’4 Hill and 6’4 reserve forward Tabitha Amanze, while Columbia thought the 6’1 Rafiu offered more mobility.
Hill and Amanze won the battle in the first half, combining for 14 points on 7-for-8 shooting and leading the Tigers to a 22-14 advantage in paint points. (Rafiu had just 4 points on 2-for-3 shooting.)
“They both played extremely well today,” Chea told reporters postgame about Hill and Amanze. “I don’t think anyone in the league can guard them.”
Hill had the first points of the game on a roll to the basket, and she seemed to respond with a score whenever Columbia had a key basket or made a run.
“It’s ‘next play’ mentality,” she told reporters afterward about her mindset in those moments. “They’re gonna score. … So it’s really about just punching back.”
But at halftime, it was Rafiu who found her way and was able to punch back. She had 9 points, three steals and two rebounds in the second half, while Hill had only 4 points on limited touches and Amanze went scoreless.
“Susie plays safe sometimes, and when she plays safe, she’s usually overthinking what she should do [and] when she should do it,” Griffith said. “And that was kind of [the] first half. … I’m like, ‘Suz, come on. Snap out of it. Just play.’ …
“The game plan was to go inside because we wanted to challenge their bigs … and that’s where Suz, I think, really stepped up.”
Even though Hill and Rafiu are upperclassmen, neither had heavily impacted the rivalry until Monday. Hill didn’t play at all against Columbia in her first two seasons, and as a junior, she played only 8:15 across the two regular-season matchups. In fact, ahead of the first matchup last season, head coach Carla Berube benched Hill, inserted 6’ Chet Nweke at the four and slid 6’1 Ellie Mitchell to the five for a smaller starting lineup that could match up better with Columbia. (Hill later played 11:28 against Columbia in the Ivy Tournament final, which Princeton won comfortably.)
Rafiu played just 10 seconds against Princeton as a first-year. Though she played regularly against the Tigers last season, she had just 5 total points and six rebounds in three games and fouled out once.
But both players got their moments to shine in the rivalry on Monday, and they each nearly doubled their season averages in scoring.
“There was a great battle [inside],” Berube told reporters postgame. “… I mean, it’s Ivy League post play, and there’s great toughness in there.”
After the game, Princeton lamented not getting the ball to Hill and Amanze more, especially in the second half. That’s where Columbia’s pressure had a ripple effect — not only forcing turnovers, but also keeping the Tigers out of rhythm and making it harder to run their offense.
“Their pressure was tough, but … it wasn’t something we hadn’t seen before. And yeah, I thought we just struggled to execute our looks,” Berube said. “Credit to their defense. But I think if we’d done a better job of that, clearly we had a good advantage in the post, and we … kind of went away from it in the second half.”
For Princeton, the loss doesn’t derail its Ivy League title or NCAA Tournament hopes. The Tigers beat Harvard already and will have a rematch with Columbia at home in February. Their NCAA NET ranking fell by just one spot to No. 45 after Monday’s loss, and they’re still squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble. The fact that they’re in such a good position after losing so much to injuries and graduation shows how strong the program is and how elite of a coach Berube is.
“It doesn’t define our season,” Hill said. “We’ve lost before — and we’ve won before — so we’ll keep pushing and just hope to not do it again.”
For Columbia, it’s arguably the Lions’ best win of the season, and it could be crucial to their case for an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament should they lose in the Ivy League Tournament. If Rafiu keeps playing at this level, that could also be a good sign for a program that has sometimes struggled to handle opponents’ size, including in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.
But perhaps most of all, the win is a jolt of confidence for the Lions. There were questions about whether they could keep pace this season without Hsu, but for now, they are the hunted, not the hunter.
After the win, Griffith had a message for her players, to make sure they didn’t rest on the win with most of the conference season left to play.
“Gas pedal now, y’all,” she told them. “We’re not letting up.”
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