Columbia’s historic NCAA Tournament ends, but more history could be coming soon

She directed her players through their last offensive possession, which ended with an offensive rebound and put-back by junior forward Susie Rafiu with five seconds left. Then she motioned for the players to get forward and press the Mountaineers one last time.

The reason she was doing that, and the reason her players stayed focused alongside her, comes down to the team’s culture.

“We talk a lot about, ‘You don’t just play to the buzzer,’” Griffith told reporters after No. 11 seed Columbia’s 78-59 loss to the No. 6 seed Mountaineers. “‘You play through the buzzer, and then when they tell you you got to stop, then you stop, maybe, or maybe you hold on to the ball a little bit longer.’”

Saturday’s final buzzer, though, felt different than all the others. It abruptly ended a 24-7 season for Columbia and the college careers of senior guards Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins, two of the best leaders the program has ever had. If they could’ve, they would’ve held on to the ball forever to keep their careers alive.

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The Lions entered Saturday’s game fresh off the first NCAA Tournament win in program history, a 63-60 victory over fellow No. 11 seed Washington in the First Four on Thursday. They were determined to stay longer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and keep showing the world what the program is about.

“Watching us should be like watching a force that just plays together the entire time, and any adversity that hits, it doesn’t matter,” Henderson told reporters on Wednesday, before the First Four. “We still look [like] the same team. We’re consistent throughout. I’d love [for people] to be able to see what a winning culture can do.”

But Columbia ran into a buzzsaw on Saturday in the form of West Virginia’s defense, which pressures full court for 40 minutes and is just as stifling in the halfcourt. The Mountaineers force 23.8 turnovers per game, which ranks second in the nation, and allow just 55.6 points per game.

The Lions turned the ball over in the backcourt on their first offensive possession, as West Virginia star JJ Quinerly got the first of her game-high seven steals. The Lions weren’t rattled, though, and kept the game close early on. Sophomore guard Marija Avlijas and Henderson each drained 3-pointers in the first three minutes, prompting Mountaineers head coach Mark Kellogg to stomp his foot in frustration.

But the West Virginia pressure mounted, and Columbia ended the first quarter with 11 turnovers. Then in the second quarter, the Lions got called for two five-second violations when they were unable even to inbound the ball.

The Lions started to settle in as the game continued, but a 17-point halftime deficit was too much to overcome. It swelled to as many as 22 in the third quarter, and they couldn’t get closer than 15 after that. Columbia finished the game with 25 turnovers, which the Mountaineers converted into 28 points.

“In the first half, I felt a little sense of, ‘OK, we got to get going again. We got to recharge the batteries,’” Griffith said postgame. “And I thought [we] were great in the second half, but you just can’t dig yourself that hole.”

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When the Lions did break down West Virginia’s defense, it was often because of their ability to handle the ball at every position. Henderson, the primary point guard, worked tirelessly to get open, making multiple cuts on every out-of-bounds play, but West Virginia was determined to keep the ball away from her.

Rafiu, playing the five position, brought the ball up one-on-one at times and had just one turnover all game. And Collins, who Griffith likes to play at the four to create mismatches, played as a point forward in transition and in the halfcourt.

Collins often inbounded the ball to begin the press break, and sometimes she got it right back. In the halfcourt, she repeatedly scored and found her teammates from the high post, which was key against West Virginia’s zone. She finished with a team-high 16 points, six assists and four rebounds. And though she did have five turnovers, she was the only Lion who played more than 10 minutes and had more assists than turnovers.

“Cece’s a tremendous passer and playmaker,” Griffith said. “… And we decided, ‘Hey, we’re gonna put you in [the high post]. We’re gonna let you make quick decisions. We’re gonna let you play free.’ And … I thought she did really well.”

“I was just trying to find little gaps,” Collins told reporters postgame, “and, if I was open, just try and look to score, or hit cuts on the backside or even skips to the corners.”

Besides Collins, two other Lions scored in double figures. Sophomore Riley Weiss, the team’s leading scorer, had 14 points on 4-for-8 3-point shooting, five rebounds and two assists. Henderson added 13 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals despite picking up three fouls in the first quarter. But West Virginia guards Quinerly and Jordan Harrison carried the day, combining for 50 points on 18-for-31 shooting, 13 assists, 10 steals and eight rebounds while drawing 12 Columbia fouls.

The loss especially stung for Columbia because it felt like the end of an era — specifically, the most successful era in program history. Henderson is the program’s winningest player with a 100-27 record, while Collins has been part of 47 wins in two years at Columbia after transferring from Bucknell. The past four seasons are the only 20-win seasons in the program’s Division I history. The Lions have also won three straight Ivy League regular-season titles, and they made the program’s first two Division I NCAA Tournament appearances in 2024 and 2025.

Henderson ends her career having played nearly 4,000 minutes in a Columbia uniform. She ranks first in program history in career assists (494), second in steals (194), fourth in points (1,350) and sixth in rebounds (703). She also earned three All-Ivy selections, is a two-time captain and has been the Lions’ glue since she arrived on campus.

“My favorite thing about Kitty is how tough she is,” Griffith told The Next in November 2022, when Henderson had barely begun her freshman season. “… [If] you need a rebound, you need a stop, you need — just put her in the game. She’ll figure it out.”

“Looking at Kitty play, it’s like, ‘I want to play hard for that kid,’” Abbey Hsu, the program’s all-time leading scorer who graduated in 2024, told reporters in January 2023.

Meanwhile, Collins was named second-team All-Ivy twice and was a co-captain this season. She produced 822 points, 299 rebounds and 255 assists in her two seasons at Columbia.

When she transferred in ahead of her junior season, she fit in perfectly — with the team overall and next to Henderson as a leader. Her goofiness balanced out Henderson’s seriousness, and they had the same grit and desire to be great. In separate meetings with Griffith after their junior seasons, they both told Griffith they wanted to be the best player in the Ivy League. Then they worked toward that every day, without ever prioritizing it over team success.

“They want to one-up each other all the time, and I think it’s really healthy,” Griffith told reporters on March 4. “… They just elevate each other because they’re naturally competing to be the best.”

“Cece from the start has been a fantastic leader for our team, and that’s obviously, you don’t see that all the time [from] someone coming as a transfer,” Weiss told The Next in October. “… She’s doing a really good job of holding all the newcomers accountable, and that’s really helped our team a lot. And that’s what keeps our culture the best in the country — stuff like that.”

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In Saturday’s postgame press conference, there was hardly a dry eye anywhere. Henderson sobbed as she thought about hanging up her uniform, and Collins and Griffith had only slightly more success holding back tears.

“This program means everything to me,” Henderson said, her voice thick with tears. “I’m gonna remember all the moments … just everything with my teammates and with the staff. I mean, we just love each other so much, and I feel like we mean so much to each other. So just spending time, even in the locker room, anything like that … the little moments mean so much.”

“I’m just forever in debt to this program and this university, Coach G and the rest of the staff, for giving me a chance here,” Collins added. “… Having a team around me all the time, they’ll always have my back, and especially Kitty here. I mean, she’s had my back for the past two years, and I can’t thank her enough.”

As Henderson and Collins depart, though, the hope is that the culture and habits they’ve helped stamp into the program will make the new era look a lot like the old one.

“For all of our young players, they know one way now,” Griffith said, referring to making the NCAA Tournament. “And we fought like hell to get here, and I promise you, that is not something we will let go easily.”

The Lions will have plenty of talent coming back. Weiss, a first-team All-Ivy selection this season, and Rafiu just finished their first season as full-time starters and will carry that experience forward next season. Avlijas and junior co-captain Perri Page could also both start full-time after splitting starting duties this season.

“I just think you’re seeing the beginning of Perri Page. She is a force,” Griffith said on Thursday after Page had nine crucial rebounds against Washington. “… She’s got such a bright future in this sport ahead of her. I told her, ‘You’re going to be our best player next year. Riley is going to be Riley, but you’re going to be our best player.’”

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

There will also be room for the current first-years to seize bigger roles. Griffith has called guard Mia Broom a “mini Kitty” because of her grit, and her scoring prowess could make for a lethal tandem with Weiss. Guard Nasi Simmons has elite defensive instincts, and forward/center Marta Jaama was expected to contribute immediately before tearing her ACL in the season opener.

“The young players have so much grit, so much energy,” Henderson said. “And I think they’ve had so many chances to learn from people this year, and I think they have everything they need. … They’re ready.”

The returners understand that their mission is to keep pushing the program forward, even with all the history the Lions have already made. That was an immediate topic of conversation through tears in the locker room postgame. It was the verbal version of playing through the buzzer.

“[That conversation] gives me a lot of hope as a coach, too, to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to take that next step,” Griffith said. “‘We’re going to win that first[-round] game. We’re going to the Round of 32. We’re going to the Sweet 16.’”

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