In a back-and-forth battle with Delaware last Sunday, women’s basketball trailed by one point heading into the final 90 seconds of nonconference play. Freshman guard Aurea Gingras ripped a defensive board and charged up the court, passing a dime to junior guard Maddie Loder.
Loder nailed the fastbreak layup, giving GW the lead and setting them on a 6-0 tilt to complete the comeback. The Colonials (3-3) toppled the Blue Hens (3-1) 61–56, holding them 40 points below their average heading into the matchup.
“Really proud of the way the team fought today,” head coach Jennifer Rizzotti said. “We talked a lot about adversity and handling it better, and the fact that we were down double figures in the first half and found a way to stay together in a group until we found our groove – I feel like it’s a step forward.”
Graduate student guard Jasmine Whitney led the squad with 16 points – 11 of which came in the fourth quarter. Loder tacked on nine points, hitting at a .500 clip.
Gingras, who notched Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week honors Monday, filled the stat sheet with a career-high 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, four assists and seven rebounds in 37 minutes. Fellow freshmen forward Caranda Perea and center Ali Brigham each contributed six points and a combined nine rebounds.
“[Aurea] and Caranda both in the first half gave our team confidence because they weren’t afraid of the pressure, afraid of taking big shots,” Rizzotti said. “They really wanted to be out there making us better, so it’s just exciting to see a couple of freshmen build that role for us today.”
The Colonials showed their most efficient shooting night all season, sinking 40 percent of shots from the floor. The squad also controlled the paint, outscoring the Blue Hens 36–24 down low and besting Delaware in the fastbreak 21–13.
Junior guard and forward Jasmine Dickey lit up the hardwood for the Blue Hens, tallying a floor-leading 23 points on 11-of-25 attempts and ripping 11 boards. Redshirt junior forward Ty Battle also took a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Delaware was stifled by GW’s defense, firing at a .338 clip – its lowest percentage of the season. The team – which averaged 96 points a game heading into the matchup – scored just 56 points. The Blue Hens’ three-point shooting also fell quiet as the team sank just 3-of-22 – it’s lowest conversion of the year.
GW started the contest neck-and-neck with Delaware, but a 6-0 run bolstered by Dickey kept the Colonials at a distance. Dickey tallied 10 points in the first quarter, outscoring the entire GW roster by three points. The Colonials were just 3-of-15 from the floor in the frame.
A layup and jumper combo from Brigham and Gingras brought the Colonials within one point to start the second quarter. But an eight-point tilt from the Blue Hens and a three-minute GW scoring drought pushed the squad to a three-possession deficit.
An and-one fastbreak layup from Loder started a 6-0 scoring run for GW. Five of the six points came from the charity stripe. The Colonials capitalized from the free throw line, hitting 16-of-21 throughout the contest. Delaware went into the break leading 28–22.
Both teams traded buckets throughout the first five minutes of the third frame. But a layup from redshirt sophomore forward Mayowa Taiwo sent the team on an eight-point spin to give the squad its first lead of the game. Dickey led a five-point charge at the end of the quarter to put the Blue Hens back on top heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
GW ripped the lead back with an 8-2 run in the first three minutes of the frame that saw four different Colonials net points. Both teams stayed neck-and-neck throughout the next minute of play before Gingras netted a layup.
On the next offensive possession up the floor, Whitney turned the momentum in favor of the Colonials as she sank the team’s only three-pointer of the game. Her triple put the Colonials up by two possessions with five minutes to play. Brigham extended the lead to six, but Delaware refused to back down, notching seven straight points for a one-point lead.
In the final 20 seconds of the matchup, Loder hit a layup to give GW the lead and its defense shut down any comeback attempt from Delaware. Whitney capitalized on late-game fouls, hitting four straight shots from the charity stripe to cement GW’s 61–56 victory. The Colonials outscored the Blue Hens 23-14 in the final frame to snap its three-game skid.
“It was very important for us to come in here today and work hard, and we definitely had to work for this one,” Whitney said. “It’s good to go into this little break in our nonconference schedule with a win.”
The Colonials will return to action Friday at Davidson to start A-10 play. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m.
