Poog - Thanks. Great news.

been several 12PM tipoffs lately.  Are they all for the kids?

GW hangs on to win 75-61.
 
The start of the game was true to form with LUC struggling on offense but playing tough D and forcing GW into some questionable shots. The quarter was halted due to a fire alarm with 1:45 left in the period and GW leading 12-7. After a long delay, the Ramblers whittled down the lead, but thanks to a buzzer beater by Lok, GW closed the period with an 18-14 lead. Lok led all 1st quarter scoring with 6 points, with Innis chipping in 5. GW came out strong in the 2nd quarter and found their offensive groove. Behind Lok’s 11 points and Taiwo’s first half double-double (11-10), GW pushed out to a 47-29 lead. Lackluster defense by the Colonials resulted in a 19-point 3rd quarter for LUC. Thanks to some very efficient offense by Lakstigala (18 points in 3 quarters), GW managed to keep the lead at 64-48 to start the final period. The inability to score at the start to the 4th gave the Ramblers some life.  After LUC cut the lead to 8 at the 4-minute mark, Robertson hit a pair of clutch 3-pointers for our first scores of the quarter to put a little cushion on the lead. The usual back and forth in the final moments led to some GW free throws and the Colonials prevailed 75-61. Robertson finished the quarter with 9 of GW’s 11 points and 16 for the game. Lakstigala led all scorers with 19 points, while Taiwo added a career-high 19 rebounds to go with 12 points.
 
The Colonials played a good first half, but our inability to build on a lead reflects a disturbing trend. After shooting 50% in the first half, GW could only manage 11.8% in the 4th period and finished the second half at 25%.  Luckily, Robertson shows no fear, and will put up shots even after a poor shooting first half. The Colonials did not play well defensively as a team. The LUC front court pushed us around and at times, we left the perimeter wide open. Props to Blethen, who finished with 8 points and 5 boards to pick up the scoring slack from Brown, who was held scoreless. Lok had a great first half, so it begs the question of why we saw so little of her in the second. The probable rationale for Webster’s 19 minutes was to spell Taiwo, especially for interior defense, but today, her defense was not great and her offense was non-existent. The coaches have a challenge moving forward because our remaining schedule has a number of teams with significantly more talent than LUC. GW needs to learn how to play with the lead, so maybe some adjustments to the rotation will help.

At the halfway point of the conference season, GW is -5-3 in the A10, and has already exceeded the total number of wins from last regular season.  Despite some of the shortcomings of this team, a great deal of progress has been made and this weekend’s contest against Dayton is just the next big test of several more to come.

Last edited by xAC (1/25/2023 6:54 pm)

Overall I thought WBB played pretty well. Loyola's WBB team looked as lost as the MBB team defensively when they were rotating and we had wide open lanes to operate for much of the game. There were times where we were still having issues rotating along the perimeter which resulted in made threes for the Ramblers but thankfully LUC doesn't have the talent yet so it didn't burn GW too bad. That will still need to be cleaned up against better teams. I haven't looked it up, but I'd imagine our 3-PT defense has to be among the worst in league play.

MBB and WBB combined to shoot 22/39 (56%) from three in two games at Loyola's gym. Love those rims!!

- Good to see Mia have a good game in her return home. She was quiet early on, but started to get it going later. Lakstigala made an impressive three in transition, but many of her threes were assisted and overall better quality shots. Hope to see more of that moving forward. She can create her own shot, but that doesn't always need to be the case.

- Asjah does a good job of getting the team off to great starts. I don't think there's a name for that role (generally people only think of closers) but she is a good opener.

- I sound like a broken record at this point, but Mayowa's rebounding is such a luxury to have and we'll miss that next year. I think if there is something we could have done a bit different in the second half it was playing a little more inside out because LUC started to mix up defenses down low - that hurt Mayowa's efficiency after halftime.

- Good to see Faith be more of a presence offensively. We need balance on the team scoring-wise.

- Both Nyas were really good yesterday:
I thought Robertson was forcing things a bit early on, but she did a much better job later on playing within the flow of the offense. I love when teams leave her open from the corner, especially off an inbounds pass because she's money from three at that spot.

Lok made some big threes to halt any momentum Loyola had in the first quarter. Also impressive awareness to make herself open on that inbounds pass and she is a very underrated passer. Mia, Nya R, and Mayowa might be the three most important players on the team but honestly Lok might be #4 after them. I second xAC that I'm confused why she didn't play more in the second half. Depth is a double edged sword. It's almost like the UMass MBB situation with there being so many players who warrant minutes. I'm also just confused when Jayla sees time at random points in the game. That probably hurts Thornton's rhythm somewhat.

- It was just an unfortunate shooting day for Essence. I thought the shot attempts were good. An 80% FT shooter missing all four attempts is just bad luck honestly.

- Taylor has had a rough season, but hopefully those shot attempts start to fall moving forward. She was a good three point shooter last year, so not sure what happened. We need her size down low to give Mayowa a breather. GW WBB doesn't have much depth up front so she'll continue to get the opportunity to produce, and I'm rooting for her to have success moving forward.