GW Hoops / Villanova

**Posted by dmvpiranha** 11/06/2019 7:17 pm

Women are on the road against Villanova. Let's go!

Starting Lineup:
Sydney Zambrotta
Tori Hyduke
Faith Blethen
Neila Luma
Alexandra Maund

**Posted by PKGW** 11/06/2019 7:41 pm

Strong first quarter

**Posted by BC** 11/06/2019 7:50 pm

GW up 38-25 at the half.

**Posted by BC** 11/06/2019 8:26 pm

GW up53-36 after 3.

**Posted by BC** 11/06/2019 8:56 pm

Women won 68 - 56. GW was up by 21-22 early in the 4th qtr, but collapsed a little in the 4th. Sort of a continuing trend from last year. I was just following the online - stats so I could be off a lot on what was happening. Hopefully someone watched and give a better picture. Some of the newcomers had decent games.

**Posted by GW Alum Abroad** 11/06/2019 9:09 pm

I think the secret word is "Zambrotta". 17 points, 5 assists , 2 steals and zero fouls (ignore the 5 turnovers) in her Colonials´ debut. This is now the roster Coach Rizz wants, and this result is the one I want. Hail to the Buff! Hail to the Blue!!!!

**Posted by xAC** 11/06/2019 9:28 pm

Got a chance to watch this game and was pleased with what I saw. This team will be pretty good this year, but I think really good in future years. There were things to like about almost everyone:

Both Hyduke and Zambrotta can score. Both can go to the basket, as well as shoot from outside. Hyduke was totally under control -- generally did not play too fast. Zambrotta was a volume shooter, and took a few bad shots, some out of control drives. All of our bigs (Maund, Mokwuah, Luma, and Taiwo) showed some good low post offense. Blethen was not an offensive factor, but played alot of minutes and did a good job rebounding and on defense. The overall defense was very good (held their top player, a preseason first team ALL Big East selection, to 2 points in 35 minutes). We didn't lose anything when we went to the bench - MoKwuah, Taiwo, Loder, all did some good things when they got in.

To put things in perspective, these things (above) were true through the first three quarters. Nova went to a press in the fourth, and we didn't handle it too well. We had a few turnovers, but several times we broke the press, but missed easy shots. I was surprised we didn't see more players: Overcash, Levy, Gumbs, and Stephenson (injured I think), didn't play.

Also, this was a young NOVA team. Princeton on Sunday will be a better test.

Last edited by xAC (11/06/2019 11:09 pm)

**Posted by BGF** 11/06/2019 9:52 pm

It's a bit early to know what this win means, but...

1. It's a road win against a major conference opponent
2. GW was 7th in the A-10 preseason poll, I believe, and Villanova was 5th in the Big East.

Lots of reason to be optimistic.

**Posted by The Dude** 11/06/2019 10:20 pm

Darn good win! nicely done.

**Posted by Poog** 11/07/2019 9:21 am

Stephenson was in sweats so still not ready to play. Had pleasure of watching them in person at Villanova's amazing new facility. Total domination by GW well described by xAC. Don't believe 4th qtr blip was caused by anything Villanova did as much as GW taking itself out of its offense looking to score too quickly and Wildcats finally hitting some shots when GW's defense lost some of its intensity. Perfect end to a blowout win -- still have work to do and here's the film to show it. This is going to be a fun rebound season for the women this year back to the standards we've come to expect. This is not the 7th best team in the A-10 and the rest of the league is already beginning to see that.

**Posted by BC** 11/07/2019 11:21 am

For those who watched, I have a couple of questions. First, why did Kayla Mokwuah play so little? She played 9 minutes in the first half; was 3-6 from the floor; had 6 rebounds and 1 block. Does she play horrible defense? She got only 6 minutes in the second half where she didn't do so well. Second, Is Zambrotta a ball hog, while she had 17 pts, she also was 6-18 from the floor; had 5 TOs (and 5 assists). Nothing to brag about.

**Posted by xAC** 11/07/2019 2:00 pm

With repect to Mokwuah - I wouldn't read anything into her minutes:

a) Maund was having a good game.
b) MoKwuah is the only "5" on the team; we generally went with three forwards and two guards for most of the game.
c) If the game was close, she probably would have played the fourth quarter, but because of NOVA's full court press, we played with mostly a smaller line-up.
d) She was very efficient in her minutes and if she has any weakness, it's probably her stamina, but she seems to be getting better.

With respect to Zambrotta:

a) I would not say she that she's a ball hog, but she's very active; She had good intentions, finding openings and going to the basket, but when the defenses closed in, she threw up some hail Marys (maybe 4 that I remember)-- she needs to clean that up.
b) Her turnovers were not bad ones. At least one was a travel that resulted from a bad pass to her, and another was just a questionable travel.