Lions hope for wins over Penn, Princeton at home

The Columbia women’s basketball team returns to the place where all of its wins have come this season, only to face the two teams that started its current losing streak. Home may not be so sweet when the Lions host Penn and Princeton this weekend.

Columbia (5-19, 4-6 Ivy) has lost four straight games, all on the road. Its skid began with a 57-35 loss at Princeton, followed by a 60-40 defeat at Penn. Then, this past weekend, Columbia suffered 63-51 and 77-46 losses at Dartmouth and Harvard, respectively.

A major reason for the Lions’ setbacks is their lack of offensive production. No Columbia player is a consistent scoring threat. Currently, senior guard Kathleen Barry (10.5 points per game) is the only one averaging double figures. Even she is struggling, though, having scored just four points at Penn and three at Dartmouth.

Though the Lions’ offense has sputtered for the past two weekends, head coach Paul Nixon said that each weekend faced different problems. At Princeton and Penn, he said, Columbia did not take high-percentage shots and at Dartmouth and Harvard, the Lions took open shots but missed.

“The offense was executed pretty well [at Dartmouth and Harvard]—we were getting players, really, very wide-open looks oftentimes—and I think we just got into a mental situation where one person would miss, and then the next person would miss, and then it would just kind of start snowballing on us a little bit,” Nixon said. “I think we got back to taking the right kind of shots this past weekend. Now, the goal this weekend is to get back to taking and making the good shots.”

But Columbia’s offense is filled with question marks. There is senior forward Lauren Dwyer, for example, who went 0-for-8 from the field at Dartmouth and then scored 10 points at Harvard the next night. Then there is freshman guard Brianna Orlich, who scored nine points in each of the past two games but went 2-for-12 at Dartmouth and 3-for-9 at Harvard. As a team, Columbia hit just 28.1 percent of its field goals and 16.5 percent of its three-pointers over its last four contests.

Columbia may try to improve its offense by shuffling its starting lineup. In a Tuesday interview, Nixon said that he and his staff had discussed, but not finalized, changes to the starting five. “It might be a game-time decision,” he said.

Barry and Dwyer have been locks in the first string and will likely remain as such, especially considering that this weekend marks their final two home games. That leaves Orlich, freshman point guard Taylor Ward, and freshman center Courtney Bradford as the starters who could lose their spots.

Sophomore point guard Taylor Ball, sophomore forward Tyler Simpson, and junior guard Melissa Shafer are all possible candidates for starting roles. All of them have made starts this season, and all of them can score in double figures. Even they, however, are inconsistent. Shafer, for example, followed a game-high 18 points at Dartmouth with a scoreless outing at Harvard.

No matter who takes the court for Columbia, the Lions will face two teams with momentum on their sides. While Columbia has struggled recently, Penn and Princeton have not. The Quakers (10-13, 4-5 Ivy), after starting 1-4 in Ivy League play, have won three of their last four games. Princeton (19-4, 8-1 Ivy), meanwhile, has won five straight contests and has sole possession of first place in the conference.

The Lions have succeeded in their recent home games, winning their last three contests at Levien Gymnasium before their four-game road swing. The Lions will try to return to their winning ways on Friday and Saturday.

“We haven’t changed as a team,” Dwyer said. “We just haven’t been playing our best basketball. So we know we’re still very capable of that level of play, and we’re hoping to re-enact it this weekend.”