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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

Women’s basketball overcomes early struggles to down Hawks

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 24 – At one point in the second half of the GW women’s basketball game against Saint Joseph’s Sunday, a Hawks supporter cried out at GW’s Jessica Adair “You’re playing basketball not football, girl!”

The friendly reminder was not unwarranted – the Colonials were engaged in a tightly contested match-up that had more than its fair share of contact. But by the end of the game, Adair had raked in 20 points, leading the Colonials to a 63-51 victory.

Adair added four rebounds and was supported by her sister Jazmine who had eight points in the paint for GW. Jessica Adair had to battle one of the bigger bodies in the Atlantic 10 in the Hawks’ Sarah Acker and surrendered 12 points and nine rebounds to her opponent, but Adair, the self-proclaimed biggest body in the conference, said the battle was just all in a day’s work.

“It was a tough-fought game,” Jessica Adair said. “She brought her best and I brought my best and it was just a good match-up. I’m basically the biggest post in our league and every game (the opponent’s) posts bring it, so I’m used to it.”

After a less-than-perfect first half in which the No. 17/16 (AP, ESPN/USA Today) Colonials shot less than 27 percent from the floor, GW took a 20-18 lead into the break. Saint Joe’s head coach Cindy Griffin said the low scoring first half benefited her squad and kept the Hawks in the game, but GW senior Kim Beck said the Colonials were not afraid to keep shooting, knowing that their attempts would eventually fall.

“Shooters keep shooting,” Beck said. “We just kept shooting the ball and kept taking it to them. We didn’t let the misses get to us, and I think that’s what pulled us out.”

Junior Antelia Parrish, who missed five of her first six shots, drained two big three-pointers late in the second half that helped swing the momentum in the Colonials’ favor. Late-game shooting coupled with a full-court press employed by McKeown around the nine-minute mark was enough to keep the energy ever-so-slightly on GW’s side, something that Beck said was crucial for the Colonials.

“These games, when it’s really close, you need emotion in it to pull you over,” Beck said. “We were at their house so we had to make our own noise, and I think we did that.”

The Colonials’ win was all the more sweet considering who it came against. The Hawks foiled GW’s plans at the A-10 Championship last year in Cincinnati, erasing a sizeable deficit in a short period of time to leave the Colonials scratching their heads. But how does the victorious GW squad stack up against the one that couldn’t close the deal last season? Griffin said they’re better.

The Colonials’ second-to-last regular-season game comes Wednesday in Richmond, where GW will meet the Spiders for a 7 p.m. tip-off. The two squads have already met once this season, with GW winning 78-51.

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