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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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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

Colonials fly over Dayton

Dayton entered Tuesday’s game with the GW women’s basketball team with a 16-game winning streak on its résumé from earlier in the season – a far cry for the lower-caliber Flyer teams of years past. Still, the Colonials did not seem to notice and rolled to an 81-73 victory.

No. 16/13 GW (AP, ESPN/USA Today) outlasted Dayton, completing its most recent home stand without a loss and keeping the Colonials atop the Atlantic 10 standings. The win was also GW’s 23rd win of all-time – in 23 tries – against the Flyers.

“It was a conference game that you had to grind out,” head coach Joe McKeown said of the close battle. “We just couldn’t get enough stops to where we could keep that double-digit lead.”

It also gave McKeown his 499th career win.

Senior Kim Beck led GW (17-4, 5-1 A-10) with 18 points and junior Jessica Adair added 17 from the low post. Dayton’s Kendel Ross paced the flyers with 16 and Nikki Oakland chipped in 13 points as the Flyers’ offensive post option.

The two squads traded baskets through much of the first half, but GW opened the second half with a fire not seen in the earlier period. Much of that came from Beck, who went on a 10-0 run by herself midway through the half to put GW up 56-41.

But Dayton’s inside forces kept whittling away at the Colonial lead and cut the difference to as little as three with five minutes left in the game. Dayton’s Kelly Keil and Oakland fouled out down the stretch, however, and GW took back the momentum to hang on for the victory.

Though things got tight near the end, McKeown said he was confident that GW would pull through.

“I felt like we were going to make enough plays to win the game,” he said. “I thought if we could take away their threes in the last two minutes, even if they were scoring inside a little bit, that we were still going to win the game. I thought we did a good job with matching up with their shooters at the end.”

Play at times became quite physical, as the Colonials reached the foul line a season-high 28 times. Adair, who’s been to the line plenty this season, said it comes with the territory.

Dayton had been turning heads earlier this season after stringing together 16 straight wins during the bulk of its out-of-conference schedule, and had earned votes in the national polls, so GW’s tilt with the Flyers had been seen beforehand as a clash of A-10 powers. As perhaps the last true test for the Colonials this season, the victory is that much sweeter. After beating Charlotte, (undefeated in the A-10 at the time), GW appears to be back on-track following suspect games in the last two weeks.

GW travels to Pittsburgh this weekend for Saturday’s game with Duquesne at 7 p.m. Duquesne enters the game at 11-10 overall and 2-4 in the A-10.

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