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Women’s Basketball

Oof, that went south in a hurry. Not out of it yet, but gonna be tough.
 
Spiders battled to the end, but Spartans take the 83–76 win.

Encouraging performance overall to hang with MSU, especially considering the slow start for the Spiders. Hoped we had the momentum heading into the fourth, but it wasn't to be. Not sure if we ran out of gas after digging out of the hole or if it was something else. Spiders didn't give up though. A win would obviously have been fantastic, but certainly wasn't expecting one. Stats ended up pretty even except for rebounds, and a little bit turnovers, so those were the difference. Spartans struggled at the line.

Spiders will play a tough 11–2 Chattanooga team in the consolation tomorrow. The Mocs knocked off a ranked Mississippi State squad a couple of weeks ago.
 
Great effort! Never quit mentality in them! I'm never for moral victories, but I'm pleased with how we fought. And in women's basketball a top 50 vs top 20 can often be a blowout. This was down to the wire despite a rough start.

Broadcast was terrible and lost feed entirely for a large portion of the game. Saw most of the first half and the end of the game. From what I was able to see, I love that we have no quit, and it is clear Rousell continuosly makes adjustments.

I also love that many of you were following and commenting on here.
 
Good showing by the women. Obviously winning would have been better - but I think they have showed improvement since opening the season loss to Duke and now battling Michigan State into the 4th quarter.

I would not be surprised if the women are fighting at the top of the A10 and if so - sneak into NCAA conversation.
 
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Certainly hoping the Spiders can vie for a conference championship, but there's some good quality at the top of the A-10.

Davidson is looking strong...beat Duke and played UNC very close. Blowing out other teams left and right, including App State who we struggled with.

St. Joe's also playing well. Only loss is a blowout one to an excellent Utah squad. Beat Villanova who we lost to and generally cruising over other teams other than a decent Temple team where they needed OT.

Mason's only two losses are to a solid Maryland team and a very decent ECU, but they haven't played any other teams of note.

VCU is 10–1 with their loss being to a decent JMU team. Decent wins over St. John's in Puerto Rico and against ECU, Charlotte, and ODU, but nothing really jumping out.

Rhode Island is always tough and while they're only 6–5, they have a nice win over Princeton and hung with a top 10 NC State team that's still undefeated and now up to #3 in the poll. They did lose to Maine, who we destroyed, and also have a bad loss to Quinnipiac.
 
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Yep. The A10 will be tough. Davidson particularly stands out to me. We should definitely be in the conversation for the top of the A10, though. And absolutely we should be thinking NCAA. Not a given, of course, but with a NET of 53, it is certainly within reach.
 
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Is the A10 a top women’s basketball conference? Seems like there are a lot of good teams this year.
 
Seems to be rated 10th by NET, which is actually lower than the men at 8th.

The women's problem is there's a decent number of top 100 teams but then a huge drop-off.

47. Davidson
53. Richmond
56. St. Joe's
69. VCU
78. Mason
81. URI

178. Duquesne
180. GW
196. SLU
201. Loyola
203. Fordham
214. Dayton
263. Bona
301. La Salle
324. UMass
 
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Seems to be rated 10th by NET, which is actually lower than the men at 8th.

The women's problem is there's a decent number of top 100 teams but then a huge drop-off.

47. Davidson
53. Richmond
56. St. Joe's
69. VCU
78. Mason
81. URI

178. Duquesne
180. GW
196. SLU
201. Loyola
203. Fordham
214. Dayton
263. Bona
301. La Salle
324. UMass
I feel like most of the men’s programs would fall in that wide gap between URI and Duquesne. Looks like the top end is better than the men’s though.
 
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Top end of the men's is pretty solid actually, compares reasonably well with the women and is deeper. Definitely still a gap in the middle, but not nearly as many 170+ teams on the men's side.

23. Dayton
48. St. Joe's
67. Duquesne
78. Mason
79. Bona
88. UMass
91. Richmond
92. VCU
99. Davidson
109. GW

159. La Salle
169. Loyola
210. SLU
217. Fordham
240. URI
 
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Another slow start for the Spiders and obviously tough sledding overall with that score, but hopefully they can continue to assert themselves.
 
Spiders shot 35% UTC shot 36%

To this point not giving up second chance points tonight. UTC only 2 ORB
 
Spiders jumped out to an 11–4 lead over GW but then gave up a 15–0 run. Neck-and-neck for the rest of the second quarter, with the Spiders taking a 37–35 lead into the half. GW defense is making the Spiders work, even though they're shooting over 50% from the field. Offensive rebounds have really been what's keeping GW in the game.
 
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Hate to complain when we're shooting 55%, but some missed layups are keeping us from pulling away.

Edit: And now a lane violation erases a FT attempt.

Edit 2: Ugh, GW takes the lead and has all the momentum.
 
Couple of bad turnovers for the Spiders down the stretch, but clinging to a 3-point lead with 33 seconds left. GW ball.

Edit: Huge steal by Townsend on the inbounds to redeem herself!
 
GW did a good job, similar to our tough game against App State, of limiting our 3 point attempts. This team is a very good shooting team and they rely on a lot on the 3 ball, which they usually make. But in order to make them - you must take them The girls average about 24-25 3 attempts a game and in this game - only were able to get off 12. App State did the same thing - ran our girls off the line and made them drive and take 2's instead of 3's.

I got a feeling this will be a strategy used by other teams as our girls are really good shooters all around for the most part. Playing 2 point games might keep the game close, but hopefully they can pull away with some timely 3 point shots.

But any road win in conference is a good win, and now they get a good test at home vs. VCU this week.
 
Trap - your analysis is spot on. But GW's strategy also let Grace Townsend go to the bucket largely unimpeded. We really didn't have to take a bunch of threes. The reason this game was close was GW's offensive rebounding (19-5 advantage for GW) and second chance points (15-2 GW). Still, the biggest shot of the game was a Budnik three when we were up one with about three minutes to play. It changed the momentum of the game and forced GW to play catch up.
 
Richmond 33 St Joes 32 half

Spiders turned ball over 9 times that half and gave up 7 ORB but only 6 second chance points.
Spiders 7-12 from 3 for the half.
 
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