GW loses at home to LaSalle 62-55.

What a terrible start. 11 TOs in the first quarter and we were throwing the ball all over the court. Luckily, after taking an early 12-0 lead, the Explorers only managed 4 more points and led by 9 points at the end of the 1st quarter. In the 2nd quarter we settled down, and thanks to some tough defense and great shooting by Engel (15 points in the half), we won the quarter 22-17 to cut the lead to 33-29. An acceptable outcome because Taiwo was on the bench for most of the 1st half with two fouls.

After winning the 3rd quarter, we entered the final period down by 3 points. Despite making numerous stops and allowing LaSalle only 11 field goal attempts, our shooting woes came back to haunt us as we finished 4-20 in the 4th period. Many shots were close-in or wide open, but we squandered too many opportunities. Taiwo, after being shutout in the 1st half, came up with several clutch plays and finished with 7 points and 6 boards. Despite the great 1st half, Engel did not score in the 2nd half, as we did a very poor job of finding her and getting her some shots. Laureano also finished in double figures (13 points) but took 18 shots to do so.

A10 tourney is next up, but despite low expectations, our team can use the playoffs as a learning experience before getting a deserved break and a chance to decompress during the off-season.

Last edited by xAC (3/02/2022 3:17 pm)

Every time I watch this team play I can't help but notice the lack of height. It's caused a lot of issues on both sides of the ball. The fact that we've been good on the boards despite that has been impressive (some of that is missing shots, but we have been a good rebounding team regardless).

Surprised Maddie didn't start on Senior Day, let alone not play a single minute. 

There are stretches in every game where it looks like Mayowa is the only A10-level player on the floor for us. I have no idea how she is able to finish down low despite being a bit undersized but she manages to pull it off and has been fantastic all season. We try to find her down low on many offensive possessions (and rightly so) but because of the height disadvantage we usually loft that pass, which requires her to jump ten feet in the air to come down with the pass. The fact that hasn't led to more turnovers has been nothing short of amazing.

Maxine has been really good all season, and I'm glad we've given her more minutes over the course of the season. It is tough as a freshman to expect her to hold it down low defensively but she without a doubt needs to be out there for offense. Hopefully we are able to add more to depth down low (again, especially size) to help out there. Taylor has been playing better of late, but we probably need another player or two down low to help. Surprised Sophie doesn't see action from a height standpoint alone.

The two JUCOs on the team (Sheslanie and Nya) have been a bit up-and-down all season. Probably part of that is due to both being sidelined for a number of games over the course of the year. Sheslanie has moments on both sides of the ball, but is prone to turning it over trying to make a fancy behind the back pass. Nya is just not the same player as she was during OOC play when healthy. She puts a lot of spin on her shots and I wonder whether it's because of that or just bad luck that shots continue to rim out for her. Both probably remain rotation pieces next season but it remains to be seen whether we'll need to bring in other pieces next season to really lift the offense consistently. Having said that, their ability to create their own shot has been a significant improvement from last year's team.

One thing that we definitely need is a guard who can shoot somewhat reliably. Kyara has been getting more playing time as a slightly better shooter than Aurea and Sierra, but we are at a big disadvantage defensively with that approach. It was hard to ignore La Salle consistently going to Spruill down low time after time because Kyara was switched on to her defensively late in the game which pretty much made the difference (apart from the several give-and-go conversions). That's not a particularly fair matchup. Until the game absolutely required us to shoot more threes, I'm surprised Sierra didn't play more in the final quarter, if not for at least a bit more size and because she can slash to the rim and maybe get to the line. We were basically in the bonus for much of the 4th quarter. Aurea has played better the past couple games. I assume she's returning given both Kyara/Sierra are graduating and I'm sure McCombs is going to bring someone else in to help out because she is still pretty raw as a shooter. Finding a guard with some height will be critical.

After the very top few teams, the rest of the teams in the A10 haven't looked that good. The average GW team in the past would probably blow them out. We have lost a number of close games which is tough, but there is no doubt we need to add more offensively next season. Free throw shooting really needs to get better as well. We must be 50% for the year but I haven't looked it up. The defense has been really good most games and not the problem. The ball movement for much of the season has been pretty good. We got a number of good looks every time we tied the game back up, but again this team struggles to make shots consistently.

Not much to add on the game itself except for the fact that the refs blew the whistle every time there was the slightest bit of contact which ruined the flow of the game. La Salle's coach should have probably been T'd up at some point. He was definitely the whiniest coach I've seen along the sidelines in any GW game this year.