Reminder that Towson's head coach is a former GWU women's basketball assistant coach - Laura Harper - under Jen Rizzotti.  Her dad was a former GW men's basketball player - Havriland Harper.

Update: Last night Towson beat Liberty in overtime 73-70 to improve to 5-1 on the season. Kornegay-Lucas was held to 8 points on just 3-16 shooting, but Anumgba came up big with 21 points. Fulmore chipped in 12 points and Nelson added 10.

First time catching the team after a few games. A much better second half on both sides of the ball after a rough first. In the first half the floor spacing was a bit cramped offensively and on top of that the team wasn't rotating as well on defense resulting in a number of open looks for Towson. The defense really tightened up after halftime (apart from the occasional possessions where GW gave Towson a lane to either finish at the basket or get through the FT line). Ball movement was better as well.

The three plays that are run too often that are ineffective:

1) Dribble handoffs until one player takes it to the basket. Too predictable and the opposition knows what's coming. Sometimes there's an opening (nice) but otherwise it's a hoisted shot over a number of set defenders. It results in too much isolation and not enough passing after the initial action.

2) Mayowa getting the ball along the perimeter. This has mentioned a few times earlier in the year as a result of Maren controlling the paint. Because Taiwo is not a threat to shoot, every team knows what's happening next. She will drive the ball and attempt a hook shot against multiple defenders. Here it would be nice to have some secondary action with a player cutting to the basket. Taiwo is an underrated passer, but those skills aren't being used. The team in general tends to stand in one place.

3) Team post ups. Various players take turns posting up their defender and many times taking shots from tough angles. This again de-emphasizes ball movement. There again could be some secondary action off this play to get players moving off the ball. So far, there hasn't been too much of that.

On top of that, the Nya corner three off an inbounds play is too predictable. There are times where I think we can use Robertson as a decoy and find a player underneath for a score.

Some of the plays could be better, but again the bottom line from what I've seen this season is that the talent is just not at the level it needs to be to have success. Robertson has been great, but inefficient due to a shortage of scoring around her. Good to see Lok back, although I can't imagine the cast around her wrist has been easy to deal with. We give Maren occasional post touches, but that's like 2.5 players who are threats at any given point. GW needs to get to the point where every player is a threat to score in some fashion (and also have more guards on the team). That was the difference between the two teams more than anything.

One final point about internal development. It feels like there hasn't been any player to really break out in their second year under McCombs. It's still early, but I'm looking to see who can take that next step that's been on the team for a year already. Injuries haven't helped of course, but I think someone needs to emerge there at some point. Hopefully Essence is able to make it back soon.