George Washington University Athletics
GW Caps Road Play at Nationally Ranked Xavier Wednesday
2/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 22, 2011
GW Notes at Xavier 
| | Live Blog
CINCINNATI, OH - The George Washington women's basketball team plays its final road game of the season Wednesday at nationally ranked No. 6/6 Xavier at 7:00 pm. With two league games remaining, the Colonials are currently in a three-way tie for 10th place in the A-10 standings with Fordham and Massachusetts.
Fans who cannot make it Wednesday have a number of options for following the game:
• Follow live game stats via
• Follow the action and submit questions via the Live Blog
GW (8-18, 3-9 A-10) has clinched a spot in its 29th Atlantic 10 Championship, held at a neutral site for the second straight year - Tsongas Center in Lowell, MA, March 4-7. GW is one of four A-10 teams (UM, SJU, TU) to qualify for all 28 league tournaments. GW concludes the regular season against Saint Joseph's this Sunday at Charles E. Smith Center. The Colonials will honor lone senior Ivy Abiona prior to the CBS College Sports nationally televised game. GW is 7-5 at Smith Center this season, but just 1-13 away from home.
In its second to last road game of the season Saturday, Sara Mostafa led GW with 15 points and Tiana Myers recorded her second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but A-10 leading scorer Brittani Shells scored a game-high 21 points and Genevieve Okoro and Crystal Goring each registered double-doubles to lead Richmond to a 70-62 win. The Colonials trailed by 17 in the first half, but clawed back to within a point twice in the second half before the Spiders closed on a 12-5 run to pull away.
Leading scorer Danni Jackson suffered a concussion Saturday at Richmond and will miss Wednesday's game at Xavier, leaving GW with eight players available as Kye Allums (concussion symptoms), Megan Nipe (knee), Shi-Heria Shipp (knee) and Janine Davis (illness) are also unavailable. 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): 34.5 ppg, 15.3 rpg and 8.3 apg.
GW has dropped three straight in the series to fall to 17-14 all-time against Xavier. The No. 7/7 ranked Musketeers got 34 points and 18 rebounds from frontcourt duo Ta'Shia Phillips and Amber Harris to offset Tiana Myers' 18 points in the Colonials' 72-56 loss at Smith Center last February. In the most recent meeting at Cintas Center in February 2009, XU literally shot the lights out in a 72-52 victory, making 14 three-pointers in a game that featured a 20-minute delay early in the second half due to a power outage in the facility that opened in 2000.
Xavier (23-2, 12-0 A-10) won its 13th consecutive game Sunday with a 77-51 victory over Duquesne at Cintas Center. The victory marked XU's 10th double-digit win in A-10 play this season. Xavier has escaped Dayton in both meetings between the southwest Ohio rivals this season, winning by four points both times.
Including postseason play, Xavier has won 29 consecutive games against Atlantic 10 opponents. XU has also won 34 of its last 36 league home games, with GW providing one of those losses (67-55 in Jan. 2007).
The Musketeers' frontcourt tandem of Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips are both on the midseason list for the Naismith Player of the Year Award. Both Harris (18.6p/10.0r) and Phillips (15.4p/12.4r) average a double-double and combine for 34.0 points and 22.4 rebounds per game. Phillips has recorded 17 double-doubles and Harris has posted 14 so far this season.
XU is among the national leaders in team field goal percentage (.466), paced by Phillips' A-10 leading 61.3 percent rate. The Musketeers are also in the Top 10 in the country in field goal percentage defense (10th, .342), rebound margin (7th, +10.1) and personal fouls (6th, 13.4 fpg). Xavier does rank near the bottom of the league and NCAA Division I in free throw percentage (.654) and steals (7.6 spg).
Currently at sixth in both the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Top 25 polls, Xavier peaked at a program-high No. 4 earlier this season before being derailed by consecutive losses to Duke (L, 46-45) and Stanford (L, 89-52).
