Chapel Hill, NC – Riley Weiss scored 14 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to help Columbia recover from a part-time deficit of 13 points and beat Washington 63-60 on Thursday night for the first victory in the NCAA tournament of the school.
Cecelia Collins added 12 points for the lions (24-6), who won the first confrontation of 11 seeds. They will face West Virginia of the sixth seed on Saturday.
Columbia followed most of the game until the last quarter when Weiss heated. His two free throws with 18 seconds gave the lions an advantage of 61-57. Elle Ladine returned by hitting a deep triple a few seconds later to turn it into a game of a point.
Weiss then launched two free throws to put the 63-60 with 12 seconds.
Washington (19-14) had a last chance, but this time Ladine’s triple was off. Perri Page grabbed the rebound and received a foul with 1.7 seconds. Both free throws were lost, but Washington did not have waiting times and its 80 -foot agitation was short.
That triggered a wild celebration of the lions in Midcurt.
Weiss completed a four -point play and made two other triples in the first minutes of the room to give the lions their first advantage of the game.
The game was tied in 54 before Susie Rafiu hit a tray just before the shooting clock expired and then after a robbery of Kitty Henderson, Marija Avlijas hit a triple of the wing to put 59-54.
Columbia was playing in the first four for the second consecutive year. Last season, Columbia lost to Vanderbilt.
Coach Megan Griffith has turned the Lions into a power of the Ivy League in recent seasons. The former Columbia base has taken the program to three consecutive titles of regular season conferences, including this year’s absolute crown.
Now the team has a victory in the NCAA tournament to its credit.
This was the first appearance of the NCAA of Washington since 2017 when the Huskies arrived at Sweet 16.
Sayvia sellers ended 21 points to lead Washington. Dalayah Daniels added 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Washington hit nine of his first 12 shots to climb early 19-6. The Lions fought from the field, lost their first nine attempts of 3 points and fell 21-10 after the first quarter. The Huskies increased the advantage to 34-21 by half, since they kept Columbia only 30% of shots in the first 20 minutes, including 2 of 15 of 3.
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