Leading by 26 points with less than a half-minute to play, the women’s basketball team pushed the ball as if it were a tie game.
Why? Because with one more basket, GW would eclipse the 100-point mark and finish in triple digits for the first time since 2000.
With an aggressive drive and a left-handed layup from sophomore Alexis Chandler, they did – going over the edge and sealing the 101-73 victory over Jackson State.
“You never go into a game thinking you’re going to get 100 points, that rarely happens,” graduate student forward Megan Nipe said. “But no matter how the game’s going, we’ve been taught to never slow down, never quit playing, so it was really exciting.”
Head coach Jonathan Tsipis has made it known that his team wants to play a fast-paced game, and today, they did that from the very start.
After a turnover – make or miss – the Colonials immediately look for the outlet pass, and before Tsipis can even call the play from the sidelines, GW has made its way halfway up the court.
GW never trailed the entire game, scoring 14 fast-break points and 35 points off turnovers, an example of the speed that translates back over to the defensive side of the ball.
“A big part of what were trying to do offensively is play at an up-tempo pace,” Tsipis said. “I think if we can advance the ball, be in an attacking situation, whether that’s being open for a three, or post running to the rim, attacking the basket, we need to be in that attack mode.”
The up-tempo pace resulted in five Colonials scoring in double figures, led by Nipe who had a game-high 20 and freshman guard Hannah Schaible who added 16.
Through just two games as a Colonial, Schaible has proven herself as one of the team’s most versatile players, able to shoot from the outside, remain tough in the post and penetrate the paint with some nifty ball handling.
“[Schaible] was never the go-to scorer in high school, but one of the things that I thought when I evaluated her was that she did so many things instinctively well,” Tsipis said. ”The fact that she can rebound, she can anticipate, she can handle the ball, she can make open shots, she can get to the rim – I knew our team would love playing with her.”
As the Tigers, who play in the Southwestern Atlantic Conference, tried to keep up with the Colonials offense, they fell right into Tsipis’ trap.
The Colonials defense came out in a half-court press for the majority of the game, hounding the JSU backcourt, and forcing turnovers after just the first or second pass. GW would force 31 Tiger turnovers on the day.
Looking ahead to Friday’s much-anticipated matchup with No. 9 California, though, Tsipis’ biggest concern is on the defensive side of the ball.
The 101 points aside, JSU still scored 73 – a high number by any standards, and even more so for a Colonials squad that gave up just 60.2 points per game last year.
The Colonials struggled with fouling and rebounding, Tsipis said. With the fast-paced offense GW wants to run, those two factors are its biggest hurdles, as grabbing the boards can allow for a quick transition into the break and fewer fouls mean fewer opportunities for opponents to set up the half-court game.
Against a Jackson State that relies on dribble penetration, though, GW struggled to overcome foul trouble all game, totaling 26 fouls. GW also failed to out-rebound a visibly outsized Tiger’s team, finishing tied, 48-48.
“We’ve got to be able to defend without fouling,” said Tsipis.
The Colonials will look to repeat their high-scoring performance on Friday against the nationally-ranked Golden Bears, a Final Four team last year.
