Vanderbilt women get past Columbia in NCAA First Four
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BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Iyana Moore scored 22 points, Sacha Washington had a double-double and Vanderbilt celebrated its return to the NCAA Tournament with a 72-68 win over Columbia in a battle of 12-seeds in the First Four on Wednesday night.
The Commodores (23-9), who are in their 28th NCAA Tournament but first since 2014, face fifth-seeded Baylor on Friday.
Washington had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and 15 rebounds for Vanderbilt. Khamil Pierre added 11 points for Vanderbilt and Justine Pissott had 10.
Moore delivered the big shot, hitting a 3-pointer that made it 69-62 with 24.4 seconds to play but the win wasn't secure until Pissott made two free throws with 2.3 seconds left.
Kitty Henderson had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Lions (23-7), who were making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Abbey Hsu and Cecelia Collins both had 13 points.
Columbia is only the second Ivy League team to earn an at-large berth in the tournament, joining the 2016 Princeton team, which featured current Lions coach Megan Griffith as an assistant coach.
Vanderbilt's largest lead was 10 points on several occasions, the last after a Washington layup made it 66-56 with four minutes to play. Fliss Henderson made a layup and then Kitty scored Columbia's next seven points, cutting it to 69-65 with on a three-point play with 18.1 seconds to go.
After one Vanderbilt free throw, Collins was fouled and after making the first free throw to make it 70-66 she missed the second. A 3 was missed after a long rebound before Collins got the ball in the lane for a short bucket with 3.1 to go, leaving it to Pissott to ice it.
Vanderbilt made 6 of 20 shots but managed a 13-13 tie after one quarter when Washington made a layup at the buzzer.
Hsu's 3-pointer gave Columbia a 16-15 lead in the second quarter and Kitty Henderson had a 3 to make it 21-20. There were two ties after that but then the Commodores reeled off 10-straight points, with five different players getting two points.
It was 36-26 at the half and 53-45 lead after three quarters for Vanderbilt.
Hsu closed the quarter with a free throw, giving her Columbia's single-season scoring record, which ended at 611 points. She is also the school's all-time leading scorer and fourth woman in Ivy League history to surpass 2,000 points (2,126).