George Washington University Athletics
GW Looks to Get Over the Hump Wednesday Against Duquesne
1/25/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2011
GW Notes vs. Duquesne 
| | | Live Blog | Tickets
WASHINGTON, DC - The George Washington women's basketball team hosts Duquesne Wednesday at Charles E. Smith Center at 7:00 pm as part of Staff and Faculty Appreciation Night. Any staff or faculty with a valid GWorld ID can purchase $1.00 tickets to Wednesday's game.
Fans who cannot make it Wednesday have a number of options for following the game:
• Watch Live on GW All-Access - $9.95/month or $79.95/annual subscription fee
• Follow live game stats via
• Follow the action and submit questions via the Live Blog
The Colonials enter Wednesday's contest seeking to snap a nine-game losing skid, the longest such skid in program history. GW also looks to end a streak of seven straight regular-season league losses dating back to last season.
GW (5-13, 0-4 A-10) will have only eight players available for the second straight game Wednesday as Kye Allums (concussion symptoms), Megan Nipe (knee), Shi-Heria Shipp (knee), Erica Chandler (foot) and Kristin Aldridge (shoulder) are unavailable due to injury. The Colonials have been hampered by injuries each of the past two seasons after having just eight players available the final 19 games of 2009-10. GW's total production out with those five players (including Shipp's 2009-10 stats): 27.7 ppg, 14.6 rpg and 5.2 apg.
GW dropped a pair of decisions to Duquesne last season, with both contests coming down to the Colonials' final possession. In fact, the last four series meetings have been decided by eight points or fewer, including the last three being decided by three points or less. Despite the recent close encounters, the Colonials still own a perfect 23-0 mark against the Dukes at Smith Center, winning by an average of 18.8 points at home. DU escaped last March's A-10 Championship first round with a 61-58 overtime win over GW at The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, MD, and also held off the Colonials' late-game rally for a 66-64 win in snow-covered Pittsburgh last February.
In its most recent outing Saturday, GW built a 51-41 lead with 8:43 remaining only to see Fordham close with an 18-5 run and hand the Colonials their first-ever loss at Rose Hill Gymnasium, 59-56. Junior Tiana Myers led GW with 15 points, while sophomore Danni Jackson, who missed Wednesday's game at Dayton with a knee injury, came off the bench to chip in 14 points, six assists and five rebounds. The Colonials led 35-28 at halftime and by as many as 10 points on three different occasions in the contest, the last coming at 51-41 with 8:43 left. However, a 12-3 run sparked by three consecutive 3-pointers got the Rams even at 53-53 with 4:58 remaining. Fordham's Caitlin Shadbolt made two free throws for a 57-55 lead with 1:47 remaining and, after a Brooke Wilson free throw, Arielle Collins made a shot in the lane to make it 59-56 with 19 seconds to play.
Duquesne (16-3, 3-1 A-10) will be looking to add to its NCAA Division I season-high road win total of 10 on Wednesday at GW. The Dukes have won 10 consecutive road games after dropping their road opener at No. 10 West Virginia, 69-58, back on Nov. 17.
The Dukes are in the midst of a banner season having won 16 of their first 19 games and moving closer to eclipsing the program record of 20 wins in a single season set each of the past two seasons. At 16-3 overall, Duquesne is currently receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
DU's latest victory came on the road at La Salle, 81-65, Saturday. 6-foot-2 freshman forward Wumi Agunbiade recorded her seventh double-double of the season with 14 points and 10 rebounds to pace the Dukes
Agunbiade, who averages 11.1 points on 54.5 percent shooting and 7.9 rebounds, is the leading candidate for A-10 Rookie of the Year after having won the league's Rookie of the Week award in five of the past nine weeks.
Junior guard Alex Gensler leads DU at 12.4 points per game and 37 3-pointers. She's followed by senior forward Samantha Pollino, the Dec. 13 A-10 Player of the Week who averages 12.1 points and 5.4 rebounds.
DU has used the same starting lineup in all 19 games this season - Gensler, Pollino, Agunbiade, junior guard Vanessa Abel and sophomore guard Jocelyn Floyd.
Thanks to an uptempo style in which it averages nearly 62 shots per game, DU leads the A-10 with 12.1 steals per game, but is among the league's most turnover prone teams at 19.4 giveaways an outing.
