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Posted Thursday, Jan. 18, 11:08 p.m.

Despite defeating Rhode Island 61-45 at home Thursday evening, the GW women’s basketball team seemed to take more negatives from the squad’s play than positives.

Rebounding. Offensive play. Lack of consistency. Head coach Joe McKeown said after the game that these parts of his team’s game need to improve as the Colonials continue toward near-definite postseason play.

“Great defensive effort, but offensively we have to clean some things up if we want to challenge the upper echelon of college basketball,” McKeown said. “We have to be more consistent.”

The Colonials (15-2, 4-0 Atlantic 10) were out-rebounded 43-33, with the advantage coming for the Rams (4-14, 2-2 A-10) on the offensive board, 18-8. GW also shot just 43.8 percent after ending the first half shooting 9-for-24 from the field.

The Colonials have prided themselves on being a strong defensive presence, but junior Kim Beck, who led all scoring with 17 points, said that the team must find its offense, especially late in the season.

“It’s nice to fall back on (the defense) sometimes, but in early March we aren’t going to be able to just fall back on it,” she said. “We have to get our offense clicking better. We have to execute on the other half of the court.”

What offense GW did present against the Rams wasn’t always pretty. Senior Kenan Cole, who had 11 points, shot 3-for-12 from the field. Sophomore Jessica Adair faired better with 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting. She also added nine rebounds.

“I think we were just off tonight,” Beck said. “We’d have spurts. I think it’s just execution, we have to get in sync with each other.”

The Colonials will now go on a four-game road trip that will span over two weeks. GW doesn’t return home until Feb. 8. First comes Xavier (14-5, 2-1), a team that defeated the Colonials in Cincinnati last season.

“Xavier’s definitely a team in the A-10 where if we don’t execute, they’ll make you pay.” Beck said. “If we don’t stick to our defensive assignments, they will beat us. We have to get everybody on the same page, or it’s going to be a long night at Xavier.”