This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Nora Princiotti.
The Colonials rebounded their way to a 89-79 win at UMass Wednesday, bouncing back from two consecutive losses at the Smith Center.
GW exploded for a 60 rebound affair – 25 offensive rebounds – with head coach Jonathan Tsipis calling sophomore Jonquel Jones’ performance on the glass “contagious.”
“They weren’t just kind of carving out position, they were active, they were moving,” Tsipis said. “Sometimes it was just a matter of getting a hand on it, I think we probably had three or four rebounds that we almost got that kids were flying out of bounds to save.”
Jones’ personal resurgence – 20 points, 17 rebounds and 3 blocks – after missing last weeks loss to Saint Joseph’s with a foot injury and putting up just four points against La Salle, was huge in Wednesday’s win.
“We felt like we had a size advantage and knowing that we just wanted to be able to crash the boards and come away with rebounds,” Jones said.
Jones’ 17 rebounds were a team season high, while freshman Hannah Schaible added ten by herself. Eight other Colonials would have at least two boards. Schaible added nine points to her performance off the glass and helped dictate the pace of the game with her scrappy play.
“I’m just trying to be that energy crazy player, just run all over the place, just hunting the ball and those 50/50 balls,” Schaible said.
At halftime, Jones already had a double-double and GW had a twenty-point lead, 51-30, off a three from graduate student Megan Nipe.
GW was outscored 46-38 in the latter period by the Minutewomen, thanks to a 18-24 performance at the charity stripe, after they had made just one first half free throw.
But with such a big lead, the GW bench got opportunities to produce late in the game, as Tsipis opted to sit some of his starters. Graduate student Danni Jackson checked out with less than 14 minutes remaining, and Jones followed her with just under nine to play.
“We rely on Danni to play so many minutes and she’s played at such a hard and fast pace that we tried to look at some different lineups,” Tsipis said.
The Colonials got to the Minutewomen’s leading scorer, Kim Pierre-Louis, who fouled out with 12 minutes left in the second half and finished with just eight points over 15 minutes on the court.
The Colonials came in with the Atlantic 10’s best turnover margin, but they lost that battle Wednesday, turning the ball over 22 times, compared to 17 UMass turnovers. GW chose to go without their press in the game and stuck mostly with man coverage through both halves.
“I thought some of our turnovers today were maybe even overpassing at times, we were open and could have put the ball on the ground and all of a sudden we turned down a chance to attack the rim and overpassed,” Tsipis said.
The loss continues the Minutewomen’s winless streak against A-10 foes this season, and despite the weak opponent, Tsipis said he was glad to see his team back to being themselves.
The Colonials come back to the Smith Center for their next game, a matchup with Rhode Island (6-14, 1-6) on Saturday at 2 p.m.