Standing on Smith Center’s floor after Wednesday’s women’s basketball practice, junior Jessica Adair recounted last year’s trip to the Sweet 16 in Dallas. She made an unusually ear-catching comment when comparing it to this year’s NCAA tournament.
“We want to make the Elite Eight,” the D.C. native said. “We made it to the Sweet 16 last year and got upset by (the University of North Carolina).”
In reality, the Tar Heels were the top seed in the region and therefore the favorite to win. Was Adair’s comment just a slip of the tongue? Maybe. But it also could have been indicative of a mindset that the sixth-seeded Colonials might need: that this team can run with anyone. That attitude will come in handy if they hope to knock off second-seeded Rutgers University this weekend in Greensboro, N.C.
Toppling the Scarlet Knights will not be a small task. The two teams played earlier in the season and Rutgers walked away from Foggy Bottom with a 67-42 victory. Coach Joe McKeown said that was a game he tries to forget.
“I think the one thing is, you try to burn that film and forget about that game, because it’s irrelevant now from the standpoint of where we are,” McKeown said. “I’m concerned about Rutgers. What I’m not concerned with is the game before Thanksgiving.”
Rutgers (26-6) is the only team to beat the tournament’s top-seeded University of Connecticut this season. The Scarlet Knights’ leadership is embedded in four players who were on last year’s team, which lost to the University of Tennessee in the NCAA championship game.
Rutgers guards Epiphanny Prince and Matee Ajavon lead their team in scoring with a combined 26.1 points per game, while 6-foot-4 center Kia Vaughn dominates the boards with 8.4 rebounds per contest.
In November, GW failed to get much of anything going its way. Rutgers had an eight-point lead after 10 minutes and led by 17 points at the break. The Colonials went 1-of-15 from the field in one span during the half, while Prince and Ajavon went a combined 7-of-10 from three-point range for the game.
This time around, it will be especially important for GW (27-6) to have a strong start, Adair said.
“In this game in particular it’s very important because once they get a lead it’s hard to catch up with them,” she said. “They run the ball, and usually in games we’re used to being the team that runs the ball.”
Adair also recognized that there is less room for error this time around, saying GW’s preparations for the Scarlet Knights have been “more intense.”
On the court, senior Kim Beck, the team’s floor leader, said GW will need to knock the Scarlet Knights off their game and keep Rutgers from dictating play.
“That’s what we didn’t do last time,” she said. “We didn’t make them uncomfortable and let them do and run whatever they wanted when they wanted to. We have to push up on them and make them take shots that they’re not used to taking.”
Two teams from outside of the top 10 have been able to slay the scarlet dragon this season. Sunday at 2:30 p.m., GW will try to become the third.
