Next up:                              La Salle Explorers
Time:                                   February 14, 2024; 6 PM (ET)
Venue:                                 Charles E Smith Center - Washington, DC
2022-23 Record:                 17-14 (8-7 in A10)
2024 Projection:                 12th
Current Record:                 7-16   
OOC Record:                      3-8   
A10 Record:                       4-8
Common OOC:                  American University (62-53 win), Coppin State (73-68 win)
Last Time Out:                   74-65 win over GW in 2022-23 (at La Salle)
Broadcast:                         ESPN+ 

Opponent Summary: The LaSalle Explorers visit GW on Valentine’s Day in their only matchup of the regular season. The Explorers come into the game at 7-16 overall and 4-8 in the A10. Their 4 conference victories came against Fordham, St. Bonaventure, and UMASS (twice). After losing Kayla Spruill, all three Jacobs sisters, and Chastity Shears from last year’s squad, La Salle is at the start of a rebuild with a lot of new faces. The most consistent players this season have been Freshman Nicole Melious and Graduate Student Makayla Miller. The backcourt pair is each averaging 10.2 ppg. Jolene Armendariz leads the team in rebounding at 6.0 rpg, and is coming off a 15/10 double-double performance in a closely contested game against Duquesne on Saturday. As a team, the Explorers score 58.6 ppg, shooting 35.5% from the field (27.3% for beyond the arc). They have struggled defensively, allowing 70.8 ppg, resulting in a -12.2 average scoring margin.
 
About the game: Like GW, La Salle has struggled offensively, but has been able to defeat some of the lower tier teams in the A10. La Salle doesn’t have explosive players, so GW will likely handle them defensively in the half court, but if they continue to throw dumb passes into defended passing lanes and give up easy layups, they could be playing from behind for a considerable stretch of the game. Against Richmond, Lok tried to do too much early and she ended up with a game-high 5 turnovers. At least most resulted from being aggressive on offense. Innis, on the other hand, had 3 turnovers, but all were unforced passes directly to Richmond players. As a team, GW must refrain from taking so many 3-point shots, especially after badly missing numerous wide-open shots against Richmond. The 21/38 mix between 2-point and 3-point shots resulted in a 34% shooting performance.  In the St. Bonaventure win, the 44/18 mix resulted in 43.5% accuracy. Surely the coaches must realize that our players are not great 3-point shooters. Both Brown and Lok have demonstrated a good mix of inside/outside offense and must continue to do so. GW also has to find a way to get the post players more involved offensively to help reduce the team’s dependency on the outside game. Finally, Engel and Marsh were missing in action at Richmond, so hopefully both are healthy and ready to go against La Salle.

This is a timely opportunity for the Revolutionaries with Geroge Mason and Duquesne coming up next. It would be great to be riding some positive momentum going into contests against some stronger A10 opponents.