1 of 1- xAC
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline - From: Alabama
- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 509
GW versus Davidson Thread
Next up: Davidson Wildcats
Time: February 22, 2023; 6 PM
Venue: Smith Center; Washington DC
2021-22 Record: 16-14 overall; 6-10 in A10
2023 Projection: 7th
Current Record: 12-14
OOC Record: 7-7
A10 Record: 5-7
Common OOC: None
Broadcast: ESPN+
Davidson comes to DC on Wednesday evening for a 6 PM tipoff at the Smith Center. The Wildcats, who were picked to finish 7th in the A10 this year, finished their OOC campaign at 7-7. Davidson didn’t have any significant OOC wins, but played several Power 5 opponents, and lost to the likes of Duke, Maryland, and N.C. State. In the A10, the Wildcats are at 5-7, but none of their wins have come against any of the current top six in the conference. In their last game on Sunday, they were soundly defeated by UMass in Amherst 78-64. Earlier contests this season scheduled against La Salle and Richmond were cancelled.
Davidson averages 62.2 ppg, while shooting 42.3% from the field (31.8% from 3-point range) and 75.7% on free throws. Their defense allows 63.8 ppg on 44.4% accuracy from their opponents (worst in the A10). Davidson features a pair of capable scorers in 6’3” Elle Sutphin, a preseason All A10 2nd Team selection, who averages 16.9 ppg and 7.4 rpg., and guard Suzi-Rose Deegan who tallies 13.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg. Mallorie Haines, who has had some big games for Davidson coming off the bench, provides the Wildcats some long-distance firepower, hitting on 40% of her 3-pointers.
GW lost both regular season contests against Davidson last season and last defeated the Wildcats in the second meeting of the 2020-21 season.
About the game:
Davidson is an offense-oriented team that has balanced scoring. Their defense has had issues, but playing a GW team that has had trouble scoring will be welcome after three lopsided losses in succession. In their last contest versus UMass, Sutphin scored 16 points but was limited to only 3 rebounds and a single trip to the free throw line. The backcourt of Issy Morgan and Deegan combined for 34 points, hitting 7-13 3-point shots.
Davidson comes into the contest desperately looking for a win. In Sutfin, who is a tall and long athlete that hits a high percentage of her field goal attempts, the Wildcats have the type of player that has given GW’s interior defense a lot of trouble (think Toure and Brooks). Defensively, the Colonials should be able to contain the Wildcats’ offense, but we have to outscore them. Davidson’s defense will give us open looks, so we can’t squander too many opportunities. The coaches seemed to be tinkering a bit with the line-up, maybe due to injuries, so it will be interesting to see who gets major minutes in such an important game. We can’t afford to rely on big points from Robertson game after game, so the starters have to step up.
As others have mentioned, this is a huge game for GW, with a potential double bye on the line. How will our players and coaches perform in the most meaningful game of the year? Playing at home is a considerable advantage for GW.
- xAC
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline
- From: Alabama
- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 509
Re: GW versus Davidson Thread
GW loses 66-59 and squanders a huge opportunity.
1st Quarter: Davidson started out strong offensively with a couple of early 3’s, but GW was able to counter with 7 early points by Lakstigala on a couple of successful drives to the basket and a trey. In the latter part of the period Lok came alive and GW led 19-15. Lakstigala (9 points) and Lok (7 points) led the way.
2nd Quarter: Both teams started the 2nd slowly and Davidson was able to close the gap at the official timeout 26-24. Luckily for the Colonials, the Wildcats were fouling, and GW’s 8 free throws helped to keep the lead at 34-29 going into the break. Lakstigala finished with 14 points in the half, followed by Lok and Robertson who had 10 points apiece.
3rd Quarter: A poor offensive start for GW gave Davidson life and they tied the score at 38 early in the period. Ragged play by both teams after the official timeout kept teams even until Sutfin’s and-one as the clock expired gave Davidson the lead 46-45 going into the final period.
4th Quarter: GW continued its poor offensive showing to start the period, and Davidson took advantage of their height to score some easy inside baskets to grab a 55-50 lead at the 4:47 mark of the quarter. Things didn’t get a lot better after the timeout for GW and Davidson rode their front court to take a 66-59 victory.
Credit the Wildcats for outrebounding GW in the second half and accumulating 18 second chance points to GW’s 12. Davidson’s length bothered our defenders and their frontcourt players jumped over us on numerous occasions to secure offensive rebounds or easy put backs. The Davidson starting front court was 13-24 from the field and as a team shot 42.3% overall.
The final statistics tell the story for GW-- 32.2 % field goal percentage (21.7% from 3-point range) against a defense that really didn’t offer much resistance. Lakstigala had a good game with 23 points and Robertson had 20, but it took 23 attempts and she only connected on 5, including only 1-9 on treys. Lok finished with 12 points, but no one else had more than 2 points. Lakstigala and Taiwo both finished with 10 rebounds. Down the stretch, GW just made a lot of bad offensive decisions that led to some bad results on the other end of the court.
With the prospects for a double bye now hinging on the fortunes of other teams, GW would need a ton of help to secure a top 4 standing. It’s not likely. And no matter how well the defense plays, there’s little chance of beating UMass in the next game without an extraordinary turnaround in our offensive play. If the offense doesn’t gel soon, it will be difficult for the team to win even in the early rounds of the tournament. Let’s hope the coaches are working this hard. The UMass game is an opportunity to work on things in preparation for the A10 tournament.
- •
Thread Starter- gwstudent2024
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline
- Registered: 11/25/2021
- Posts: 409
Re: GW versus Davidson Thread
That was an incredibly frustrating game to watch. The shot selection, especially down the stretch, was downright horrendous and Davidson's dominance on the boards was the nail in the coffin. Credit to Davidson for taking Taiwo out of the game and slowing down Robertson (who still ended with 20 points despite a poor performance) but this is such a huge missed opportunity for GW and will surely leave a bad taste in the mouth of players potentially playing in their final game at the Smith Center. I felt like the referees made their presence felt early on and called the game remarkably tight all day. They were SO quick to blow their whistle for everything from lane violations to 10 second violations to any sort of contact around the basket. In fairness, it's not like the referees blatantly favored one side over the other but it just felt like neither team could get into a rhythm since nearly every play ended with a whistle.
- gwstudent2024
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline
- Registered: 11/25/2021
- Posts: 409
Re: GW versus Davidson Thread
Here are seeding scenarios heading into the final round of games of the regular season. If they win then they get a double bye but beating UMass in Amherst is a very tall task:
Win vs UMass - clinched double bye
- SLU loss - GW is 3rd
- SLU win - GW is 4th
Loss vs UMass
- GW comes in 4th with:
- SLU loss + Fordham loss + St Joes loss + Richmond loss
- SLU win + Fordham loss + St Joes loss + Richmond loss
- GW comes in 5th with:
- SLU win + Fordham loss + St Joes loss + Richmond win
- SLU loss + Fordham loss + St Joes loss + Richmond win
- SLU win + Fordham loss + St Joes win + Richmond loss
- SLU loss + Fordham win + St Joes loss + Richmond loss
- SLU loss + Fordham loss + St Joes win + Richmond loss
- GW comes in 6th with:
- SLU win + Fordham win + St Joes loss + Richmond loss
- SLU win + Fordham win + St Joes win + Richmond loss
- SLU win + Fordham loss + St Joes win + Richmond win
- SLU win + Fordham win + St Joes loss + Richmond win
- SLU loss + Fordham loss + St Joes win + Richmond win
- SLU loss + Fordham win + St Joes loss + Richmond win
- SLU loss + Fordham win + St Joes win + Richmond loss
- GW comes in 7th with:
- SLU win + Fordham win + St Joes win + Richmond win
- SLU loss + Fordham win + St Joes win + Richmond win
Last edited by gwstudent2024 (2/23/2023 6:11 am)
- Poog
- Buff & Blue Club
Offline
- Registered: 7/22/2019
- Posts: 319
Re: GW versus Davidson Thread
gwstudent2024: You've been pretty accurate in your observations over the past 2 years so I'm going to buy into all of your seeding permutations. Gonna accept that the double bye was blown up with last night's disappointing loss since the likelihood of beating a pissed off UMass team at Mullins or the resurgent SLU squad losing a revenge game in Chicago are less than remote. With all the teams bunched up in the middle, I was too lazy to figure out who was playing whom on Saturday. At least nice to know you've calculated we'll avoid playing on Wednesday in that first 4 game. #5 seed would give us the best game time for commuting from the DMV while the 7th seed would have us playing at 5:00 p.m. and the 6th seed at the dreaded 7:30 p.m. scheduled tip-off. What looked good before the Davidson game looks not so good this morning. Not sure it matters that much which side of the bracket or opponent GW draws given the relative balance among the teams including the supposed top 2 tier teams, both of whom got knocked off last night. Bad enough GW plays with a short in height roster. Deadly to try to do it with a depleted in available bodies one. End of season is fast approaching.
Last edited by Poog (2/23/2023 9:08 am)
- dmvpiranha
- Moderator
Offline
- Registered: 7/23/2019
- Posts: 1,248
Re: GW versus Davidson Thread
Pretty disappointing loss given what was on the line. Davidson came into the game banged up like us as well. It definitely felt like we got a more favorable whistle in the first half and things evened out in the second. The strategy to get to the hoop at all costs was successful at first as we got some Wildcat players in foul trouble and Mia/Nya made most of their FTs but Davidson adjusted and we didn't. They hung around which is never good as GW is prone to scoring droughts every game.
I realize some players are out, but the substitution patterns/minute breakdowns were somewhat strange yesterday. This isn't a slight to any player. I'm glad Maxine is seeing consistent action again, but she pulled down as many rebounds as Faith despite playing nearly 20 more minutes and asking her to guard Fuller or Sutphin for that long was probably unfair. Faith also never shoots anymore for whatever reason. I know Taylor has some limitations but I think we needed her size down low as well more and should have seen more minutes. I'm assuming Caia is injured because I was hoping at this point in the season her minutes would have increased at least a bit. I was stunned that the team only lost the rebounding battle by 1 because it didn't feel that way watching the game. This is not a Mayowa problem but rather the position next to her in the frontcourt. Adenupe just plucked the ball from the air and got a rebound many times and Sutphin would just throw up a wild jumper (sometimes contested) that would go in.
The PG and C positions need to be addressed in the offseason. I think Asjah had an uncharacteristically bad game - zeroes across the board with two turnovers in 21 minutes, but this was yet another game where the team only had 6 assists and is missing a pure point guard. I mentioned in a previous game thread earlier in the year that there wasn't a single GW player in the top 30 in assists within the league which is crazy. Mia had six assists last game against Loyola (which was a season high by any GW player against a D1 team) and is a good rebounder but is more of an off-ball/glue player than PG. Same is true for Nya, who has scoring chops but is not at the point yet where her passing has developed. She's more of a SG than PG from what I've seen this year but that could change in an offseason.
Whether the team gets the double bye or not, I think WBB has taken a step forward this year and had a successful season. The overall talent on the roster is better than the Rizzotti years and an upgrade from last year. The next step going into next season is getting a player who can orchestrate the offense and adding some size down low to combat offensive rebounding/easy scoring for the St. Joe's, Davidson's, and Rhody's of the world that are much taller/bigger.