‘That’s my second nature’: Perri Page leads Columbia with rebounding, defense

Nearly two hours later, Page almost bookended the 73-53 win with another putback. But the shot was after the buzzer, so only the rebound counted.

Afterward, she lamented that her 12 rebounds only matched, not broke, her career high. She set that mark in the season opener and has now tied it three times.

But to everyone else, Page’s rebounds on Sunday were further proof of how good she can be — and what Columbia can be with her in high gear.

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Nearly two years ago, in February of her freshman season, Page tore her ACL against Penn. She missed the rest of that season but returned in the second game of her sophomore season. “I’ve never seen someone attack their rehab so much,” senior guard Kitty Henderson told reporters last March.

It still took longer for Page to feel like her full self again on the court.

“[People] say that you take about a year to feel like yourself again, and I truly believe that,” Page told The Next after Sunday’s game. “I mean, my last year, it was battling, just trying to get back to how my body used to be.

“And I feel like I’m even better [now]. I’m an even better person, and just even running the floor, playing defense, rebounding, I feel like my body has just really adapted and evolved as well. So I think I feel physically a lot better and mentally in the right space to help lead my team.”

Page’s performances this season has shown just that. Though she has gone from the starting lineup to a reserve and back as head coach Megan Griffith experiments with lineups, Page is having a career year. As a 5’11 guard/forward, she’s averaging 8.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.3 assists in 28.2 minutes per game, all of which are career bests. She leads Columbia in rebounds per game, and she is second in steals per game among players who’ve appeared in at least half of Columbia’s games. Both numbers also rank among the top eight in the Ivy League.

“She’s just a hungry player,” Griffith told reporters on Nov. 14. “She’s just always had big goals, always has gone and taken things, never been handed them. And so now that we’ve had a lot of space left to fill with last year’s graduation of [three seniors], Perri’s just been tenacious in taking the space.”

Page started her junior season with three of her best performances ever. She had 8 points, the career-high 12 rebounds and three assists against Stony Brook on Nov. 4. She put up her second career double-double four days later with 11 points and 12 rebounds at Providence.

On Nov. 11, Page had a career-high 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting in what was otherwise a staunch defensive battle against FGCU. She added seven rebounds and four steals in a team-high 38 minutes.

After that, though, Page’s numbers started to dip. She grabbed more than five rebounds just once in her next nine games, and she shot above 40% from the field just three times.

Griffith saw Page thinking more as she tried to shoulder a larger responsibility for the Lions. So Griffith sought to simplify things and have her think less.

“We’re trying to just say, ‘Hey, Per, do what you do and be the best rebounder on the team,’” Griffith told The Next after Sunday’s game. “‘Everything else is gonna fall into place because if you see success that way, you’re gonna start building more confidence in the rest of your game.’”

Page admitted that she’s had “a lot of self-doubt” at times this season, but she said her teammates and coaches have drowned out that negative voice with positive and affirming ones. She’s also used visualization to help her focus on what she needs to do for the team. And the coaches’ message about rebounding has gotten through: “I need to rebound,” she said, “and if I rebound, everything else will come.”

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Page hit the glass hard against Wagner on Dec. 21, Columbia’s first game back after final exams. She had 9 points and that magic number of 12 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end. Against Towson, she had another dozen rebounds, plus 8 points on 4-for-7 shooting in her most efficient shooting night since the FGCU game.

Her effort on the glass from the opening tip against Towson helped Columbia grab 60 rebounds, 28 of which came on the offensive end. The latter is tied for the most Columbia has had since at least 2009.

“We’re using her as screener a lot, we’re using her as a blocker, so I just think [Perri’s offensive rebounding] gives her more touches [and] more confidence,” Griffith said. “And it makes our team feel like, ‘OK, we can take those shots knowing she’s gonna clean it up.’”

Beyond her rebounding, Page does a lot that doesn’t directly appear on the stat sheet. She sets the screens Griffith referenced, and she can toggle between the four and five positions depending on whether she’s next to forward Susie Rafiu (who Columbia likes at the five) or guard Cecelia Collins (who Griffith calls “a matchup nightmare” at the four).

“[Perri] is totally the X factor on our team,” Griffith told reporters on Nov. 27. “She makes us so dynamic defensively. Offensively, her ability to get to the hole [and] draw fouls … that’s massive.”

Page is also a co-captain alongside Collins and Henderson. She also prides herself on being the anchor of the Lions’ defense. To her, that means not just playing tough individual defense, but also making sure that everyone on the court is defending well together. Page was on the court for most of Columbia’s 17-2 run to end the first quarter on Sunday, which featured 8 points off four Towson turnovers. She has led Columbia in plus-minus twice this season.

Page and Rafiu give the Lions a different look defensively than they’ve had in the past. Rafiu, who’s become a full-time starter as a junior, gives Columbia the consistent shot-blocker it lacked last season. Her presence also gives Page the confidence to pester and pressure her matchup.

“That girl is the rim protector and she’s the defensive backbone,” Page said of Rafiu. “… When she’s there and I know that she has my back at any time … I know that I can be a psycho on the ball or off the ball, in the gap, wherever it is. So I know if she’s back there with me, we’re gonna be a force.”

Page also has a crucial — and disruptive — role in Columbia’s pressure defense. She is often at the top of the press hounding and trapping ball-handlers, a role Griffith likes her in because of her quickness. “She’s kind of like your mad dog,” Griffith said on Sunday.

But Page can also lurk elsewhere, ready to pick off passes and push the ball in transition. Columbia experimented with different kinds of pressure on Sunday, testing Towson’s ability to read the defense and respond. The Lions forced 17 total turnovers.

“This is, I would say, the most versatile defensive team I’ve had in terms of what we do,” Griffith said. “Not just personnel, but we do way more now than we ever have.”

Page’s abilities and leadership on defense have a lot to do with that, and she’s enjoying being in the middle of it all.

“[It’s] very, very fun,” she said with a smile. “I think I get to play … very free as well, and then just being able to move efficiently and then put my strengths in on the floor as well. So just being able to guard the ball, and then also being positioned to get certain steals and things like that, that’s my second nature.”

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Last March, ahead of the Ivy League and NCAA Tournaments, then-Columbia senior star Abbey Hsu told reporters, “Perri’s a force to be reckoned with, so if you’re in her way, good luck.”

Hsu said that about Page returning to play after her knee injury. But it could just as easily apply to opposing ball-handlers trying to get through Columbia’s press unscathed — or to the next team trying to keep Page from reaching 13 rebounds.