George Washington University Athletics
GW Opens Midwest Swing Wednesday At Nationally Ranked Xavier
2/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 10, 2009
CINCINNATI, OH - George Washington begins a five-day, two-game road swing at Atlantic 10-leading No. 21/21 Xavier Wednesday at 7:00 pm. The Colonials are 5-7 all-time visiting the Musketeers, including a 3-4 mark in Cintas Center since it opened for the 2000-01 season. GW has won 34 of its last 38 A-10 regular-season games dating back to Feb. 2006.
Fans can follow live stats via .
GW (14-9, 6-2 A-10) won for the seventh time in eight games with a 55-48 victory over Rhode Island Sunday at Smith Center. Senior Jessica Adair provided a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double, her third of the season and 15th of her career, to lift the Colonials to their 15th straight win over the Rams. GW shot just 36.2 percent from the floor against URI and will look to break out from its 33 percent shooting (33-of-100) the last two games. The Colonials have shot less than 40 percent in 3-of-4 games since going for season-highs of 85 points and 53.2 percent shooting in a Jan. 24 win over Duquesne.
The Colonials and Musketeers split their two meetings last season, with No. 17 GW winning the regular-season battle, 56-46, in Washington, and Xavier upsetting No. 13/12 GW, 63-59, in the A-10 Championship semifinals at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in Philadelphia. XU went on to capture its second straight tournament title, while GW advanced to its second straight NCAA Sweet 16. In its last visit to Cintas Center in Jan. 2007, Jessica and Jazmine Adair combined for 18 points and 24 rebounds and GW used an 8-0 second-half run to pull away for a 67-55 victory.
Meetings between GW and Xavier have proven to be intense, hard-fought battles, especially in recent years. Since the 1997-98 season (24 games), no team has won more than two consecutive games in the series and three times in the past 16 games the two schools have duked it out in overtime, including a quadruple-overtime thriller (94-92 XU) at the Cintas Center on Feb. 9, 2003. That 60-minute contest matches 10 others as the second-longest in NCAA Division I history. 12 of the series' 29 games have been decided by nine points or less.
In the previous nine meetings between GW and Xavier, the winning team averages 64.4 points, while the losing team averages 55.7 points. The Colonials have won six of the those nine matchups against the Musketeers.
As of Feb. 9, No. 21/21 Xavier (20-4, 8-0 A-10) is tied for the seventh longest winning streak in the nation at 11 consecutive games and is off to its best Atlantic 10 start in program history. The Musketeers reached the 20-win plateau for the fifth straight season with a 68-55 victory at Richmond Saturday, with seniors Jerri Taylor and Tudy Reed leading the team with 13 points apiece. Sophomore Ta'Shia Phillips narrowly missed her 13th double-double of the season with nine points and 12 rebounds against the Spiders.
Ta'Shia Phillips has starred in the absence of junior standout Amber Harris, who has missed all of this season due to October knee surgery, leading the A-10 and ranking third in the nation in field goal percentage (.635) and fifth in rebounding (12.0 rpg). Xavier leads the nation in field goal percentage defense, limiting its opponents to 31.3 percent shooting, and is third nationally in scoring defense (51.5 ppg) and rebound margin (+11.6).
