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The GW Hatchet

AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Colonials suffer overtime loss in showdown for top spot in A-10

The GW women’s basketball team is the strongest it has been all season, but even that wasn’t enough Sunday as the Colonials fell to Xavier 86-84. The loss, which drops GW (16-7, 10-1) into a tie for first place with the Musketeers, exposes the team’s weakness to a powerful Atlantic 10 opponent.

After narrowly defeating Dayton on Friday, GW headed for Xavier with a chance to crack the top 25.

Tough road games ahead could make it difficult for GW to maintain their share of first place. GW plays at second-place Temple Friday and then at St. Joseph’s on Sunday.

Xavier 86, GW 84
Feb. 4

GW jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the opening minutes and led by as many as 13 in the first half. It took about eight minutes for Xavier (19-2, 9-1) to sift through its offense and find that center Taru Tuukkanen was hitting from everywhere. Tuukkanen helped Xavier cut the deficit to three at 36-33 by halftime. The center drew GW defenders and either scored on fundamental bank shots or passed the ball to a waiting shooter each time.

GW got out to a 43-36 lead after Elena Vishniakova (15 points) scored three points and Erica Lawrence (24 points, 13 rebounds) scored off a Davidson missed three-pointer. Xavier answered with a 9-0 run led by six Tuukkanen points.

The two teams exchanged leads 10 times in the second half.

Xavier grabbed the lead when Amy Waugh – last year’s A-10 Rookie of the Year – who has been out for most of this season with a ruptured Achilles tendon – buried a three-pointer to put Xavier back on top 65-63.

With six seconds remaining, Tuukkanen hit one of two free throws sending the game into overtime at 75 apiece.

In overtime Xavier’s Jen Phillips scored 11 points burying GW for the 86-84 win.

GW 61, Dayton 58
Feb. 2

With the game in their hands and a Dayton team on their heels, guards Lindsey Davidson and Kristeena Alexander connected on 5-of-6 free throws in the final minutes as GW defeated Dayton 61-58.

Neither team held a lead the other could not chop away at. Even when GW broke out to a seven-point lead, its biggest of the game, with six and a half minutes remaining, Dayton chopped away and cut it to two points with three minutes to play. A Stefanie Miller desperation shot to tie fell short at the buzzer.

The Colonials (16-6, 10-0) were led by the team’s leading scorer, sophomore Erica Lawrence, who finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds (her second career double-double). Lawrence has consistently buried the 15 to18-foot jumper and is a reason the Colonials have been able to pull out road wins when the team struggles early as they did Friday.

Davidson, who has cooled off after a hot December and early January, scored 12 points.

The Colonials finished the game shooting 40 percent from the field (23-for-58). The first half was the uglier of the two, as the Colonials shot 33 percent. But they were perfect from the free throw line (7-for7) and took a 31-29 lead into halftime.

The defense bailed GW out, holding Dayton’s guard Shannon McFadden scoreless. Dayton (11-10, 5-5) shot just 37 percent (11-for-30) in the half. Dayton finished the game shooting 33 percent. Chrissy Donovan led the Flyers with 16 points.

The game was played at UD Arena before a crowd of about 1200.

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