dmvpiranha wrote:

Great performance from WBB against Loyola yesterday. I had felt like the team was capable of that all year (they were certainly not lose by 40 multiple times bad) which has made this season all the more frustrating. The offense has looked a lot more creative lately. Maybe Makayla's most efficient/best performance of the season.  Kamari was en fuego in that final quarter too! Regardless of what happens against Rhody, it was good to see that at least once before the season wraps up.

I agree. I also felt all year that a few adjustments were necessary to get the offense to be more effective and so that individuals could play to their strengths. What's disappointing is that McCombs never saw the obvious (or ignored them) and essentially tanked the season for the players. Novak is actually coaching. 

Final Result: URI grinds out the win 52-41, to advance in the A10 tournament.

Today’s starters: Andrews, Engel, Lewis, Mott and Reynolds.  GW opened the game with turnovers on their first 2 possessions, but settled down to take a 7-6 lead into the media timeout at the 4:46 mark. Reynolds committed her 2nd foul early and had to go to the bench. Both teams competed well for the remainder of the quarter and GW was able to take a slim 18-16 lead into the 2nd quarter. After a pretty good quarter, play became ragged for both teams to start the 2nd quarter. Scoring was scarce, but GW managed to stay ahead 23-20 with 4:52 left in the period. URI started to push the pace and started trapping on the press, knocking GW out of its rhythm to take a 29-27 lead into halftime. Rhode Island had balanced scoring with Ines DeBroise getting 6 points followed by Kaur and Dutat, whom had 5 points each. Andrews led GW with 12 points and Lewis added 6 points. GW was hurt by poor free throw shooting (only 1-6 in the half), and the Rams’ offensive rebounding, which led to 10 second chance points. The 2nd half started with both teams continuing to struggle on offense (or playing great defense depending on how you look at it). Sims’ 5 points on a nice drive and 3-pointer helped the Revs stay even at 33-33 with 4:55 left to go in the 3rd quarter. The Rams’ trapping press stared to take its toll, and GW failed to score for the rest of the quarter. A Reynolds foul at the buzzer on a Kaur 3-pointer, helped URI push the lead to 38-33 going into the final period. GW continued to struggle, missing a number of difficult shots, despite making a number of defensive stops. With 4:14 left to go in the game, URI pulled ahead 46-37, a seemingly insurmountable lead, given GW’s offensive woes. Although the GW defense kept URI in check, a parade to the foul line ended the game at 52-41 to the Rams advantage. Kaur finished with 12 points for URI, followed by 11 for DeBroise. Andrews led all scorers with 14 points and Sims tossed in 11 points.

This was a slog from beginning to end. Both teams struggled mightily on offense, and GW didn’t hold URI to 27.7% shooting as in the previous game--  GW held them to 21%!. That being said, the Revs could only hit 30% for the game, and conceded the boards by giving up a whopping 18 on the offensive side. The officiating seemed inconsistent at best, as Reynolds and Lewis had to ride the bench for major portions of the game, but URI was able to take advantage by hitting on 21-26 free throw attempts. By the end of the 3rd quarter, the Rams press forced turnovers or drove GW to rush their offense, resulting in many difficult shot attempts. Andrews had a good 1st half, but took too many tough shots and was held without a field goal in the 2nd half. The bright spot for GW was Sims, who once again was productive off the bench, but she was the only one. Diala did not score, but she really hustled, and surprisingly, helped to break the URI press in the 1st half with her dribble. Despite the loss, this GW team has come a long way since the devastating losses to George Mason, Duquesne, etc. And now the season has come to an end.

What’s next for the WBB program? Only time will tell.

Last edited by xAC (3/06/2025 5:27 pm)