Still in the adolescent stage of this season, women’s basketball can add a tournament title to its résumé.
The Colonials clinched the Junkanoo Jam Freeport Division title with a domineering 79-59 win over Big 10 contender Purdue. Freeport native and junior forward Jonquel Jones received MVP of the division.
“Putting our team in that championship environment, to get them ready for where we hope they are at in March was a big part of this tournament,” head coach Jonathan Tsipis said. “The opportunity with that and to bring Jonquel home, it was like playing a home game. The excitement level had a lot of an NCAA tournament-type feel to it.”
The Colonials got four players in double-figure scoring led by Jones and senior guard Chakecia Miller who tied for a team-high 14 points. Purdue finished with two double-digit scorers and shot just 34.5 percent for the game, bogged down by a 25 percent shooting mark in the first half. Overall, GW shot 50.8 percent from the field.
Jones scored all of her points in the second half, though she did have five of her game-high 14 rebounds in the first.
“I thought today she was more tentative in the first half than she was yesterday, but I think at halftime, she collected herself,” Tsipis said. “She could have very easily got down on herself and forced things in the second half, but I thought she was patient. I thought she got some things off the offensive glass, and I thought she really locked in defensively.”
GW ran Purdue off the court by a score of 36-19 in the first half, but Purdue fought back in the second with a 10-4 run to shrink GW’s lead to as little as eight.
Sophomore guard Shannon Cranshaw helped GW retaliate with a three-pointer, which regained the double-digit lead, 55-43. She nailed the triple on an assist from sophomore guard Hannah Schaible, who had a shot herself but decided to throw the extra pass for the stronger look from Cranshaw.
The teams traded a few more shots, but as Jones heated up, the Colonials stretched the lead back out for the 20-point win.
GW out-rebounded Purdue by a 43-24 margin, but the Colonials’ struggles with turnovers continued. Both GW and Purdue tallied 11 steals on the night, but Purdue only forfeited 17 turnovers to the Colonials’ 24.
The Boilermakers were able to take advantage of their takeaways by scoring 21 points off the extra possessions, over a third of their points.
Tsipis said he was impressed with the intensity of his team for all 40 minutes in regulation, and that he is starting to see the focus on rebounding and quick transitions of a high-quality team.
The two wins in the tournament give the team momentum and confidence moving into the later portion of the non-conference schedule before Atlantic 10 play begins in January.
“Trying to challenge our team with the schedule early, playing at Florida Gulf Coast, hosting Maryland and playing in this tournament, you hope in the short term they understand they can compete with anyone on our schedule, and not just compete but also put themselves in a position to win,” Tsipis said.
The Colonials get a long rest after playing two games in two days, with the team hosting Fresno State at the Smith Center on Dec. 6 at 2 p.m.
