The GW women’s basketball team defeated Richmond 69-48 Sunday in a game in which senior Ugo Oha blocked the 326th shot of her career to tie the Colonials’ all-time record.
A crowd of 657 at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va., watched GW earn its eighth straight victory by 13 points or more. Despite their long run of lopsided wins and current first-place standing in the Atlantic 10 West, head coach Joe McKeown said the Colonials should not be overly impressed with their recent dominance.
“Right now there are 30 or 40 teams in a position to have a great year, and we’re one of them,” he said. “So we really want to focus on that rather than beating ‘so and so’ by this many points, because come March, if you play sloppy you’ll get beat, just like we beat teams who don’t bring their best game.”
GW (16-5, 9-1 A-10) did not play sloppy Sunday, as senior Cathy Joens had another spectacular offensive game, hitting eight three-pointers to set a school record while racking up 31 points.
“C.J. was incredible today,” McKeown said. “She scored 20 points in the first half … that was one of her best games all season. She really put on a clinic.”
Sophomore Anna Montanana helped carry the offensive load and nearly had her second triple-double of the season. She finished with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Despite tying a school record, Oha had a tough day on offense, scoring seven points on 3-for-11 shooting from the field. McKeown said Oha played well on defense against Richmond (13-8, 5-5 A-10) but is still battling nagging injuries suffered in the Colonials’ win over Fordham Thursday.
Since dropping a home game to St. Joseph’s on Jan. 10, the Colonials have been on a roll. However, McKeown reiterated that his team needs to peak a little further down the road to have success in postseason play.
“Every year we start out, the goal is to go into March playing our best,” he said. “Some teams play their best in December. We’ve always been the other way around.”
The Colonials were dominant throughout Sunday; by halftime GW had a 17-point lead which it increased to 21 in the second.
GW was just as dominant in the first half Friday, building a 35-18 halftime lead in its 73-45 victory over Fordham at the Smith Center. Joens led the Colonials with 19 points, which moved her into fifth place on GW’s all-time scoring list.
The Colonials started sloppily against the Rams (11-10, 4-6 A-10) and only led 6-4 at the first media timeout. But they responded with a 21-6 run to open up a 27-10 lead, and Fordham would never threaten.
Senior guard Marsheik Witherspoon recorded her first career double-double, scoring 10 points to go with 10 assists, and Oha had 19 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Senior forward Valerie Williams grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds in the victory.
-Jeff Nelson contributed to this report.
