Update, 1:03 p.m….GW pulls away for the 66-56 win. Auburn got very tired toward the end and experience took over, as the Colonials played very smart down the stretch. They will face the winner of the No. 3 Cal/No. 14 San Diego game Monday afternoon.
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Update, 12:55 p.m….Colonials now up by 5, 59-54, with 2:32 left to play. GW’s experience is starting to take over, as they’re playing some very smart basketball and make good decisions. Steele hit a couple of key jumpers earlier to really swing the momentum. Auburn’s DeWonna Bonner, one of the best players in the SEC, is starting to look somewhat fatigued.
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Update, 12:36 p.m….Tie game again, with the Colonials make a little bit of a run. But Auburn isn’t tiring out and keeping up a very strong pressure. The fans are really getting into it, too.
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Update, 11:54 a.m…Halftime here with the Colonials trailing 31-29. They went through a bit of a scoring drought in the last five minutes while the Tigers were able to find the net. Senior Kim Beck made one of her signature swooshing three-pointers with a few seconds left in the half to cut the deficit.
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Update, 11:38 a.m….Tie game at 22. Parrish now has four threes. Junior Jessica Adair, though second on the Colonials so far in points with six, is struggling a bit on the inside, turning the ball over when trying to kick it back out. Auburn has been double-teaming her the whole game.
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Update, 11:25 a.m….GW up 11-8 on three threes by junior Antelia Parrish, who is playing in her first NCAA tournament game, since she played her first two years in community college. There is a decent sized Auburn contingency seated just behind me, and the combination of those fans plus Auburn’s band and its cheerleaders are creating a Tiger-favored atmosphere. GW has a few fans here also, plus the cheer squad and the band.
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Greetings from gorgeous Stanford, Calif., where the sixth-seeded GW women’s basketball team is facing eleventh-seeded Auburn. The Colonials (25-6) and the Tigers (20-11) are playing for the second time this season. It is very rare that the NCAA Selection Committee puts two teams together that played recently, but it did it this year. The squads met Jan. 3 in Auburn, Ala., to the tune of a 68-66 GW victory on a last-second Lisa Steele three. Back then, Auburn was ranked No. 18 in both polls. Currently they are not ranked in the national polls, while the Colonials are No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 16 in the ESPN/Coaches poll.
The Tigers have fallen back a little bit since then, struggling through the SEC season with a 7-7 record. But the Tigers are a very talented team and they play a similar game style to GW’s, so it could be a battle to the finish. One of GW’s biggest strengths is its blizzard defense, a style that catches a lot of opponents off-guard when they first see it. Auburn has the advantage of being familiar with the Colonials’ defense.
This game is being played at Maples Pavilion, on the campus of Stanford University. The arena seats 7,233 and is much less grandiose than I was expecting from a school with such a storied athletic program. But it is very classic, sort of what a lot of people wish the Smith Center would look like in terms of creating a nice arena in a small area of space. You can see a photo of the arena below.
Per NCAA Regulations, here is a link to the NCAA website and their logo.
