Posted by xAC  2/18/2022 10:19 am | #1 |
On Sunday (Feb 20), we travel to Philadelphia, PA for our only regular season matchup against the St. Joseph’s Hawks.
SJU was projected to finish 10th in the preseason A10 polls. Their record stands at 9-15 overall and 5-7 in the A10. They are a young and inexperienced team without an acknowledged star, but they show a lot of balance with three players averaging around 10 ppg, led by 5’9” graduate student Katie Jekot. Over the last five games, the Hawks are 3-2 with wins over Davidson (twice) and George Mason, and losses to URI and St. Louis. In the last three game stretch, with Katie Jekot out of the lineup, the Hawks turned to a young starting lineup led by Freshmen 6’1” Talya Bruglar (10. 1 ppg, 5.4 rpg) and 5’10” MacKenzie Smith (8.5 ppg and 39.7% from 3-point range). The bench is solid, with a number of upperclassmen and graduate students who get significant minutes. St. Joe’s shoots pretty well as a team (39.6 % from the field and 32.6% from distance) and scores 58.4 ppg while giving up 61.0.
GW comes into the game riding a four game winning streak after scoring 60 or more points in the last three. We are currently tied with three other teams with four A10 wins (virtual tie for 10th place). In order to sustain our success, we must continue to:
a) Play physical and aggressive defense. Force St. Joe’s to run down the shot clock and take difficult shots, and convert turnovers into transition offense.
b) Push the ball up the floor; our faster tempo has improved our offensive efficiency. With Frames and Gingras quickly pushing the ball past mid court, we are getting some great looks and more easy baskets.
c) Pound the offensive glass. Second chance points are critical when out shots aren’t falling or when our offense gets bogged down.
Despite the lack of experience on the St. Joe’s squad, they’ve demonstrated the ability to beat the lower tier A10 teams on a given night. If we can play up to or exceed our current level of play, we have a great opportunity to secure a W and create some separation from a crowded pack at the bottom of the conference.
Last edited by xAC (2/18/2022 10:20 am)
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Posted by xAC 2/20/2022 4:10 pm | #2 |
GW gets clobbered 57-34.
Bad news from the opening tip-off, as Frames is a no go. Frames absence was obvious from the outset as the early offense was out of kilter, and we took a lot of early ill-advised shots. Things just kept getting worse. Without Frames, we have no one to run the offense. We took one bad shot after another, and by the middle of the 2nd quarter, the game was over. The 1st half ended 31-13 and GW shooting an ugly 5-29 (17.2%) from the field.
In the 3rd quarter we showed signs of life, especially when Bell took over at point while Gingras sat, and cut the lead to 10. At the beginning of the fourth, when Gingras game back in, St. Joe’s had another spurt that essentially sealed the outcome. Some final numbers for GW-- 13-64 (20.3%), 1-20 from 3-point range, and 7-20 FTs.
If not for Taiwo (8 offensive boards that gave us some second chance points) the final score would’ve been a lot worse. Bad offense really made St. Joe’s offense easy, but despite that we held the Hawks to 57 points. We had only 5 TOs in the game, but only 5 assists, and the constant driving to the basket and coming up empty only made things easier for St. Joe’s.
If Frames can’t come back, we need to consider giving Bell more time in lieu Gingras. The offense resembles earlier in the season when Frames was out and Gingras was running the show. Bell has more offensive skills and can hit FTs (she hit 4 of our 7 today). Gingras only took 6 shots today, but 5 of them were ill-advised. She’s not a natural shooter, and her two 3-pointers were air balls that led to easy transition offense for the Hawks.
Maybe we just had a bad day, but if we play like this, we have no chance against Davidson later this week.
Last edited by xAC (2/21/2022 8:17 pm)
