Having taken multiple opportunities to rally student support and attendance, Sunday night’s game against No. 6/7 (AP, ESPN/USA Today) Rutgers University was obviously important for women’s basketball coach Joe McKeown. It was a chance to enter the same Final Four discussion as the No. 14/12 Colonials’ much-hyped opponents – an opportunity to make a statement for a program McKeown said he wants to change from giant-killer to giant.
After the 67-42 loss, McKeown said his squad did not make the type of statement he was expecting.
“I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed for my team and for all the fans,” a visibly dejected McKeown said. “It was just a complete breakdown.”
After trading early baskets with the Scarlet Knights, the Colonials (3-1) could not establish an offensive rhythm, failing to connect on a number of shots as the game slowly got out of hand. Passes began sailing out of control and out of bounds while the Scarlet Knights capitalized on every opportunity to take control of the game.
“In the first five or 10 minutes, I think we started beating ourselves,” said senior Kim Beck, who finished with nine points and three assists. “It created a hole we couldn’t get out of early.”
Down by 17 at the end of the first half, the hole only deepened in the second 20 minutes. Rutgers had a 34-point lead off 20 unanswered points at the beginning of the second half. After that, the Colonials’ chances of even making it a contest were pretty slim. The beginning of the second half was really just the beginning of the end.
“When things aren’t going your way and then they’re making every shot, it just snowballs a little bit,” he said, citing a number of mental mistakes made on the defensive end. “We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”
With GW’s upcoming schedule, the Colonials will have to find a way to turn things around. They host South Dakota State and Western Kentucky in this weekend’s GW Thanksgiving Classic at Smith Center before a string of difficult matchups that include trips to James Madison and Villanova and a home contest against No. 11 Texas A&M.
“Once you get over the emotion of how things went tonight, you move forward and build off what we did last week,” McKeown said. “Tonight was a kick in the stomach. We’ve got to bounce back.”
