WICHITA, Kan. — Despite a fourth-quarter surge, BYU came up short against Columbia in a fight for the WBIT national championship title Wednesday night. The final score was 81-64.
BYU did not have its best game beyond the arc. It only had four made threes all game, putting its percentage at 17% overall.
Columbia won the battle of the boards with 54 total rebounds. Its 20 offensive rebounds were able to be converted into 15 second-chance points for the Lions.
They outshot the Cougars from the field, shooting 37%. They also doubled up BYU on their 3s, with eight total.
“They showed their poise and experience in this moment,” said coach Lee Cummard.
An impressive statistic to consider was the 20 steals from BYU and it forcing Columbia to 22 turnovers in total. Sophomore Delaney Gibb led the Cougars with 8 of the 20 steals.
She also had herself a night offensively. She recorded 24 total points and five assists. Freshman Olivia Hamlin followed behind with 17 points of her own which combined for more than half of the Cougars total.
Columbia had points across the board, with four players scoring in double digits. Sophomore Mia Broom led with 23 points, followed by Ivy League Player of the Year Riley Weiss with 20, senior Susie Rafiu added 12, and sophomore Nasi Simmons finished with 10.
“We had our minds set up and made that our goal to come out and win the WBIT and that's what we did,” said Rafiu.
Columbia came out sharp from the start, winning the tip-off and starting the game with a 3 from Brown. The Cougars tried to answer the Lions' offensive momentum, but their shots were just not falling. They hit just 4 of 20 from the field in the first quarter.
Columbia took advantage of BYU’s misfires, going on an overall 13-2 run to assert dominance in the first 10 minutes.
“I felt like we were out of rhythm, and it's really hard to get back rhythm once you are shaken up,” said Gibb.
The second quarter was a lot of back-to-back action from both teams. Weiss owned it and clinched the lead going into the second half for the Lions. She had 16 of her 20 points in the first half, with Columbia leading by 18 at halftime.
The time was for BYU to gain back its game. The third started with a steal apiece from both teams with Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year Perri Page scoring the first points.
This was followed by a turnover on BYU and a layup from Weiss. This is definitely not the way the Cougars wanted to see this half start.
BYU kicked in the pace and forced much needed turnovers on Columbia to hand them some extra scoring opportunities.
When the third quarter ended, BYU was down by 23 points. It needed a lot of stops and point conversions to have a shot at this championship title.
And that is what the Cougars got, as they forced Columbia to seven turnovers which lifted them to an 11-0 run. This was followed by two other BYU runs (7-0 and 6-0) to put the Cougars within nine points with less than a minute left in the game.
“It’s a credit to our team as a whole and the girls we have in this program,” Gibb said. “We talked about leaving everything on the court and I feel like that’s what we did in that fourth quarter.”
Although BYU’s fourth quarter takeover was impressive, it didn’t have the time on the clock to catch the Lions because of their first-half dominance.
The Cougars end their season with an overall record of 26-12, recording the most wins since the 2021-2022 season. They finished with an impressive nine wins in their last eleven games.