Takeaways from a pivotal Ivy League back-to-back in New York

More specifically, “I told her to leave the locker room and come back in when she left her ego outside,” Griffith told reporters postgame.

So Weiss left briefly — for about five seconds, Griffith guessed — and came back with a fresh mindset. In the first half, the Ivy League’s leading scorer had just 3 points on 1-for-7 shooting, including 1-for-5 from 3-point range, and Griffith thought she was taking some bad shots.

“Ego isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Griffith said. “I think everybody has an ego. I have an ego. You have an ego. … [Riley] is not a selfish player. She just — we all make selfish decisions, and we just openly talk about that in our program. And she was being selfish in the first half.”

In the second half, Weiss was a different player.  She scored 20 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-3 from behind the arc. And that made Columbia a different team. The Lions went on big runs early in each quarter to turn a 6-point halftime deficit into a 70-56 win.

Less than 24 hours later, Weiss was pivotal again in Columbia’s 69-56 win over Penn. She had 21 points, 12 of which came in just over six minutes bridging the first and second quarters. That flurry staked Columbia to a 24-7 lead, and the Lions held off a late Penn comeback to win.

The sweep pushed Columbia into a tie for first place with Princeton. With only four games left to determine which four teams qualify for the Ivy League Tournament, here’s what we learned from the weekend games in the Big Apple and how they impacted the title race. Read all the takeaways or skip to your favorite:

• Columbia capitalized on its second chance
• How Columbia has found its rhythm
• Inside Weiss’ six-game scoring surge
• Can Princeton rebound?
• Penn leans on a young captain
• More battles along the Northeast Corridor

Columbia capitalized on its second chance

Teams don’t often get second chances to take control of the Ivy League title race — especially against Princeton, which has won at least a share of 11 of the past 15 titles. It went 14-0 in conference play to win five of those titles and 13-1 for three others.

But twice this season, Columbia has recovered from conference losses, beat Princeton and vaulted itself back into first place. The Lions opened Ivy play on Jan. 3 with a shocking loss to Cornell, which is currently in sixth place. Less than a month later, they dealt Princeton its first conference loss, reinvigorating their championship dreams — only to lose at Penn the next night.

Those results put Columbia a game behind Princeton entering Friday. So the Lions needed a win over the Tigers to have much of a chance at the title and a win over Penn to maintain their position in the standings.

“We treat every game the same. We prepare the same way,” Weiss told reporters after Saturday’s win over Penn. “But of course, this was a revenge game for us, and we talked about that all week. … We weren’t gonna let the same thing happen twice.”

Princeton and Columbia are now 8-2 in conference play, and Columbia holds the tiebreaker because of its 2-0 record against the Tigers. Harvard (7-3) and Brown (7-3) round out the top four, and Penn (4-6) is fifth.

Team	Ivy League record
Columbia	8-2
Princeton	8-2
Harvard	7-3
Brown	7-3
Penn	4-6
Cornell	3-7
Yale	2-8
Dartmouth	1-9

How Columbia has found its rhythm

Columbia had an up-and-down start to 2025-26 as it tried to find its identity without graduated stars Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins. It started the season 4-4, then won five straight nonconference games.

The Lions’ conference season might end up looking similar, as they went 5-2 in the first half of Ivy play but have avenged both of those losses the second time around.

They’ve surged in part because they’ve doubled down on their culture, which Griffith often calls the best in the country. For example, the players typically review the scout together, without coaches, the night before each game. However, they didn’t do that before the first Penn game because of the travel from Princeton to Penn.

“You have to trust your systems,” Griffith said on Feb. 10. “… Largely, the talk we had after [the Penn loss] was, ‘Listen, y’all, we can’t abort our systems in the biggest moment just because we won the night before or we’re tired or we’re not feeling well. … Spend that 20 minutes when you get to the hotel and you’re recovering to make sure that you do what you do and you trust the work that you do. Because when you don’t play well or you don’t hit shots, that’s what you’re going to fall back on.’”

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Columbia has found a better offensive flow in recent weeks, especially late in the shot clock. Griffith has a large playbook, and it can take time for players to get comfortable with that complexity.

The Lions have also gotten more leadership from Weiss and junior guard Fliss Henderson lately. Senior forwards Perri Page and Susie Rafiu are Columbia’s captains, but after the Penn loss, Griffith recognized she needed guards to lead on the court because they have the ball more.

“Perri and Susie being the selfless and humble leaders they are, too, they took a step back so [Riley and Fliss] could take a step forward,” Griffith said. “… You can’t have four people step up to try to lead a team. … [Riley and Fliss are] gaining inches every week, and the best part about it is our senior captains are empowering them to do it.”

Inside Weiss’ six-game scoring surge

Weiss has been a key scorer all season for Columbia because she can get points in different ways. But over her last six games, she has hit her stride when it comes to her bread and butter: 3-point shooting.

Through Columbia’s first 17 games this season, Weiss was averaging 17.4 points per game on 38.0% shooting from the field and 27.9% from 3-point range. But over the last six games, she is averaging 26.2 points on 51.4% shooting overall and 51.6% from deep. That includes a Columbia-record 40 points against Dartmouth on Jan. 24 and 38 in Columbia’s payback win over Cornell on Feb. 7.

Over those six games, Weiss has also shown that she will respond to any way Griffith tries to motivate her or demands more from her. Before the Dartmouth game, Griffith joked with Weiss that she’d score 40 points, knowing that sometimes a sharpshooter needs moments of levity to keep her loose. In contrast, Griffith gave her tough love at halftime against Princeton.

“I wouldn’t have been able to say that to her without shutting her down a year ago,” Griffith said on Friday. “So she trusts me now. … And Riley can look me in the eye and be like, ‘You’re right. OK, I gotta do this. I gotta move on.’”

Then midgame against Penn, Griffith pressed Weiss to “wake up.” It was right after her 12-point scoring outburst, but Griffith wanted more communication and defense from her.

“Coach G and I’s relationship has really grown,” Weiss said postgame. “… She wants what’s best for me. She needs the best out of me each night. So she definitely knows how to get it out of me [in] different ways.”

Can Princeton rebound?

Earlier this season, Princeton used fourth-quarter comebacks to win several nonconference games. But it couldn’t seriously threaten Columbia in the fourth quarter on Friday. The result was Princeton’s first double-digit loss in Ivy League play in head coach Carla Berube’s six seasons — and just its ninth double-digit loss in any game under Berube.

Columbia won largely because of its rebounding. It had 21 offensive rebounds to Princeton’s 10 and scored 23 second-chance points. It also outrebounded Princeton by 18 overall.

“We weren’t fighting hard enough to get that ball,” Princeton guard/forward Olivia Hutcherson told reporters postgame. “They were ripping it from us. And we talked about that before the game — that’s not something that can happen.”

“They were just tougher than we were,” Berube added.

Defensive rebounding has been an issue for the Tigers all season. They are grabbing 68.2% of available defensive rebounds, which ranks 205th nationally and is significantly lower than in Berube’s previous five seasons. Their three losses this season are also the games where they’ve grabbed their lowest shares of defensive rebounds.

Missed boxouts make it harder for Princeton to finish defensive possessions. That is part of why its defense ranks just 238th nationally this season — a far cry from Berube’s usual stifling defenses.

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A lack of toughness is also uncharacteristic for Princeton. When Berube was asked whether she was worried about that, especially this late in the season, she said, “Yeah, a bit. But I’ve also seen us play at that level, so that’s why I think part of this is what Columbia does to us, and we’ve got to figure out a way to match that intensity and match that aggressiveness. And I know we have it in us. It’s not like we haven’t seen it.”

Berube always emphasizes staying even-keeled, through big wins and tough losses. So the Tigers took their lumps on Friday, drove the four hours to Cornell and looked to regroup on Saturday. They started slowly against the Big Red, scoring just 15 points in the first half. But they looked a lot more like themselves in the second half, outscoring Cornell 44-15 to win 59-38.

Overall, the sky is not close to falling for Princeton, which is 20-3 even as it’s still working through some pain points. The Tigers also are still tied for first place in the Ivy League, boast an elite nonconference resume and have arguably the best offense of Berube’s tenure. They can still be very good in March.

But can they be great?

That will likely depend on how much they improve defensively and whether they can keep the offense humming even when opponents know their tendencies inside and out. (In the Ivy League, teams know each other so well that coaches often identify opposing players in film sessions by name, not number.)

Penn leans on a young captain

Penn sophomore forward Katie Collins was a bright spot against Columbia on Saturday with 22 points on 7-for-12 shooting (including 5-for-7 from 3-point range), seven rebounds, five blocks and seven drawn fouls. Two of her threes came in the final 1:08 of the third quarter, and she hit two more in the first 2:08 of the fourth quarter, which helped spark the Quakers’ late run.

Collins played very heavy minutes in both of Penn’s weekend games despite the tight turnaround and long bus ride. On Friday, she played 40:46 in a 72-66 overtime win at Cornell, and on Saturday, she played 37:32 before fouling out.

“Here’s someone who played 40 minutes last night in an overtime game, who’s flying around [with] two minutes to go in the game like it’s the first minute of the game,” head coach Mike McLaughlin told reporters after Saturday’s game. “That’s why I think she’s pretty special.”

Collins, the reigning Ivy League Rookie of the Year, has had to do a lot all season for Penn, which relies heavily on her and junior guard Mataya Gayle. Collins leads the team with 13.0 points and 7.9 rebounds per game while shooting 38.8% from behind the arc.

She has improved in each of those categories from last season while also contributing 2.1 assists and 1.7 blocks per game. That versatility makes her a tough matchup for any opponent, and at times on Saturday, Columbia’s best defense against her was getting her in foul trouble.

Collins is also a rare sophomore captain in the Ivy League. McLaughlin made her one of the Quakers’ five captains because he sees an uncommon maturity and professionalism in her. Now, it can rub off on her teammates in big moments.

“I feel like I’ve stepped up a lot this year emotionally, especially, just being able to maintain my own emotions and kind of bring the team together,” Collins told reporters after Saturday’s game. “But I think I try to lead by example as much as I can. So if we’re down, just keeping everybody together and stuff like that.”

More battles along the Northeast Corridor

On Saturday, Brown got its first win against Harvard since 2015 and tied the Crimson for third place. The Bears have missed out on the last two Ivy League Tournaments, including one in their gym, on tiebreakers. But led by six seniors, they’re very close to qualifying this year for the first time since 2017.

The Bears nearly beat Harvard on Jan. 31, but a buzzer-beater from Crimson senior Saniyah Glenn-Bello sent Brown home empty-handed. On Saturday, Brown got 21 points from senior Grace Arnolie and made nine of 10 free throws in the final 30 seconds to win 68-62.

“I just want our team and our program to feel like we’re one of them,” Brown head coach Monique LeBlanc told The Providence Journal postgame. “We’re a top team. Beating the top team [in last year’s Ivy Tournament] helps everyone feel like that’s true. … It’s great to kind of get over that hump with who have traditionally been the top three teams in the league.”

Meanwhile, seventh-place Yale also pushed Harvard on Friday before losing 70-62. Then the Bulldogs crushed last-place Dartmouth 82-54 on Saturday.

The Dartmouth win was arguably their best offensive performance in four seasons under head coach Dalila Eshe. Their 82 points were their second-most in that span, trailing only an 85-83 loss to High Point in double overtime in December. It took Yale 90 possessions to score 83 points against High Point, compared with just 66 possessions on Saturday.

But back in New York, Page might’ve summed up the stakes of Ivy League play at this point in the season the best. After Friday’s win, she was asked why playing Princeton seems to bring out the best in Columbia, which now has four straight wins in the series.

“It’s that conference play, man,” Page said on the ESPNU broadcast. “I mean, this is all the numbers, all the cards right here.”