First Place Columbia Women Pull Away From Brown Despite 30 Points from Kyla Jones

A sensational 30-point effort by senior Kyla Jones was not enough as the Brown women’s basketball team dropped a 77-62 decision to Columbia at the Pizzitola Sports Center on Friday night.

The effort was Jones fourth career 30-point game, shooting 11-of-17 from the floor and including 3-of-4 from three-point range, owning exactly half of the Bears’ field goals for the game. She also chipped in four rebounds and two assists. Sophomore Grace Arnolie added 14 points, and sophomore Ada Anamekwe hauled in 10 rebounds for her second straight double digit rebound performance.

Overall, Columbia dominated 50-30 on the boards, including 25-8 on the offensive glass. The Lions also held a 15-0 edge in second chance points and outscored Brown 46-28 in the paint. The game was just the second time this season that Brown lost a game when outshooting its opponent, with both defeats coming against Columbia.

Brown now trails Penn by one game for fourth place in the Ivy League standings. The Bears will need to win each of their last two games, paired with two losses by Penn to secure the fourth and final spot in Ivy Madness.

Both teams got off to sluggish starts out of the gate, combining to go 5-for-29 at the first media timeout with Columbia on top 6-5. After Jones banked in a three to go up by two, Columbia closed the quarter with five straight to take a 13-10 lead after one.

The run extended to 9-0 to open the second quarter before a steal and basket by Jones ended an over six-minute scoring drought that made it 17-12, but Columbia followed with five more to go up 22-12, forcing a Brown timeout with 4:56 to go in the half. Back-to-back triples for Jones and another from Alyssa Moreland helped make it a three-point game, but Columbia roared back with seven unanswered to end the half and take a 10-point lead into the break. Jones led all scorers with 13 points at halftime on 5-of-8 shooting, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.

Brown stormed out of the locker room and quickly rattled off the first nine points of the second half to pull within 33-32 following a foul line jumper by Arnolie. Jones scored 20 of Brown’s first 34 points as the Bears were within two, 39-37, with 4:38 to play at the media timeout. Jones took it the length of the court for a layup in the closing seconds to pull Brown within two before the Lions used two free throws to hold a 51-47 lead entering the fourth.

Arnolie used a three and a layup to pull the Bears within one twice in the opening 1:10 of the fourth before a 7-0 spurt for Columbia got the lead back to eight, 60-52 forcing a Brown timeout. Columbia extended the run to 15-2, connecting on 6-of-7 shots on the run to take a 68-54 lead. Brown wouldn’t get closer than 10 the rest of the way and was outscored 26-15 in the frame.

Brown will host Cornell on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at the Pizzitola Sports Center.