Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic <\/p>\n
At a stoppage of play with less than three minutes remaining Saturday, seniors Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins turned to the Levien Gymnasium crowd and waved.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This was it. <\/p>\n
Their final bow in front of their home crowd.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their last time playing at Columbia was nearly in the books. <\/p>\n
Another program first was in the queue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The seniors hugged one another and a few teammates as they made their way to the bench, checking out of the game for the final time.<\/p>\n
Columbia had spent the past two hours bullying Cornell, making the Big Red look small.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Collins had 21 points and 10 rebounds, and Henderson added 14 points and nine assists to lead the Lions to an easy 91-58 win that clinched Columbia its first outright Ivy League regular season title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The game\u2019s final horn was met with the sound of confetti cannons, which sprayed blue-and-white paper onto the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friends, family members and students stormed the court to join the team\u2019s celebration as \u201cAll I Do Is Win\u201d blasted from the gym\u2019s speakers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Moments like this were what coach Megan Griffith had hoped to bring to her alma mater when she took over the program back in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if it all hit me yet,\u201d Griffith said, \u201cbut I have gratitude.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the first nearly 30 years of its existence, the Columbia women\u2019s basketball program took up residency as a bottom-tier team. <\/p>\n
The Lions had more single-digit win seasons than 10-plus victory campaigns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The early days of Griffith\u2019s tenure were tough. <\/p>\n
But the recent successes have made it all worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Columbia is in the midst of its best four-year stretch in program history. <\/p>\n
The Lions have won at least 22 games each season during this span.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes, you just gotta look up and be like, \u2018Wow. These people, they really believe in what we\u2019re doing,\u2019\u201d Griffith said, \u201cand to me, that\u2019s what\u2019s so special. We\u2019re not just winning basketball games, we\u2019re creating community here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lions closed out their season with a 14-1 run and seem destined again for the Big Dance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it,\u201d Collins said as she took in the happiness that swarmed her like a warm hug. \u201cI\u2019m definitely feeling like a mix of emotions right now\u2026 But it\u2019s not over yet. I\u2019m trying to hold my tears but we have so much more to accomplish.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the senior day ceremony before the game, Henderson pulled Griffith in for a long hug at center court.<\/p>\n
For the past four years, Henderson helped elevate Columbia to heights the program never reached.<\/p>\n
The Lions made their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2024. <\/p>\n
They\u2019ve clinched at least a share of three straight Ivy League regular-season titles.<\/p>\n
Henderson was a part of all of that, in part, because of the coach who had convinced her to move across an ocean \u2014 more than 9,900 miles \u2014 away from home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI just always believed in coach G\u2019s vision,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cI just think I\u2019m so grateful to see it coming to life.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s players like Henderson and Collins, though, who have helped Griffith make Columbia a budding Ivy powerhouse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Becoming outright regular season champions \u2014 and earning the Lions\u2019 third consecutive share of the Ivy title \u2014 checked the first box on Columbia\u2019s list of goals for this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have unfinished business,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cThis is not the end, and we have to keep going. So celebrate today, and then tomorrow, we\u2019re onto the next one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Columbia will be the No. 1 seed in the Ivy League tournament, which opens Friday. <\/p>\n
The Lions will play either Brown or Penn, \u00a0who are tied for fourth in the league standings. (A tiebreaker will be determined Sunday by the NET rankings.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Lions have the chance to continue capturing program firsts, including at the Ivy League Tournament, which Columbia has never won. <\/p>\n
They also want to make noise in the NCAA Tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t the end goal,\u201d Griffith said as she gestured to the celebration happening around her. \u201cThis is just part of the journey. And so as long as we can stay focused on each part of the journey, I think we\u2019re gonna keep climbing. We\u2019re gonna keep doing things. We have not maxed out our potential. I know that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic At a stoppage of play with less than three minutes remaining Saturday, seniors Kitty Henderson and Cecelia Collins turned to the Levien Gymnasium crowd and waved.\u00a0 This was it. Their final bow in front of their home crowd.\u00a0\u00a0 Their last time playing at Columbia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":233711,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233709\/revisions\/233711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}