Women’s basketball extended its winning streak to eight games with a dominating 72-49 win over Loyola on the road Sunday.
The Colonials locked down defensively and held the lead for nearly 38 minutes of the game as they ran away with their first contest of a three-game road swing, their longest of the regular season.
Sophomore Caira Washington led the Colonials with 19 points and added eight rebounds. Junior and Naismith Trophy candidate Jonquel Jones bolstered her qualifications with her fifth double-double of the season, scoring 12 points and adding 12 rebounds.
Sophomore Shannon Cranshaw recorded six assists, her season-high, and scored eight points.
“We did the job defensively for the most part I thought,” head coach Jonathan Tsipis said. “There were parts where we didn’t make good connections on offense, but I was pleased with our post play.”
GW entered the game second in the nation in rebounding margin at +16.1, with Jones averaging an Atlantic 10 best 10.5 rebounds per game. The Colonials once again used this to their advantage, dominating the rebounding game 49-21. The team has out-rebounded the opposition in every game so far this season.
“[Jones and Washington’s] mission to make us a great rebounding team has been contagious to everyone,” Tsipis said about his frontcourt’s play. “When you have two people that have a great work ethic, everyone else responds to that.”
GW’s success in the paint was not limited to rebounding. The team outscored the Greyhounds 34-26 in the paint and 12-6 on the second chance. The Colonials also scored 21 points off 23 Loyola turnovers.
Aside from controlling the boards and the paint, GW had success shooting from the field. The Colonials shot 50 percent from the field for the game, while managing to hold Loyola to only 35.4 percent. GW also made four three-pointers on 10 attempts.
“We knew their post players played behind, so that gave our post players an advantage,” Cranshaw said. “We tried our best to pound it in the paint and give them easy looks.”
The Colonials controlled the game from the very beginning. They used the same game plan to build a 15-point lead after the first half, which had been as many as 20. GW held a 26-9 rebounding advantage, with Jones leading all players with seven boards after the first 20 minutes. Jones was tied with Washington for the team and game lead with nine points.
The Colonials used their first-half rebounding dominance to outscore the Greyhounds 20-10 in the paint and 6-0 on the second chance. The team shot 48.4 percent in the first frame compared to Loyola’s 37.5 percent.
The Colonials will play one more non-conference game before traveling to Dayton to begin the conference schedule. Even with that trip coming up, GW is focused on the very next game.
“We try to focus one game at a time knowing it’s the most important game on the schedule instead of looking ahead,” Cranshaw said. “We’ve thought about the trip to Dayton vaguely, but we’re focused on getting some vengeance on Towson.”
Women’s basketball returns to action on Wednesday against Towson on the road.
