George Washington University Athletics
GW Women's Hoops Visits Illinois for Monday Matinee
12/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
 |  | Follow @GW_WBB |
Dec. 27, 2015
| George Washington Colonials (8-3) at Illinois Fighting Illini (7-3) | |
| WHEN | Monday, Dec. 28 | 3:00 p.m. ET |
| LOCATION | State Farm Center (16,618), Champaign, Ill. |
| COVERAGE | Fighting Illini Productions | Live Stats | @GW_WBB | #RaiseHigh |
| NOTES | GW Notes  | Illinois Notes |
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The George Washington women's basketball team returns to the court following an eight-day break for the holidays when it visits Illinois for a Monday matinee, with tipoff set for 3 p.m. ET at the State Farm Center.
GW (8-3) concludes the road portion of its non-conference schedule with its first-ever matchup against the Fighting Illini. Prior to the holiday break, the Colonials defeated Iona, 70-65, for their third straight win. Senior Jonquel Jones posted her ninth straight double-double with 21 points and 14 rebounds, and junior Hannah Schaible added 16 points and nine boards.
A national player of the year candidate, Jones is the nation's leading rebounder (15.6 rpg) and the Atlantic 10 Conference's leading scorer (18.5 ppg). The Freeport, Bahamas, native's 877 career rebounds rank 11th among active players in all of Division I, and her 797 boards as a Colonial rank seventh on GW's all-time list. Jones, who became the 30th member of GW's 1,000-point club last Sunday, three games after reaching 1,000 points for her entire career (including her time at Clemson), is the fifth Colonial ever with 1,000 points, 700 rebounds and 100 blocks.
Jones and junior Caira Washington (14.2 ppg, 8.9 rpg) form the highest-scoring and highest-rebounding tandem in the A-10, as the pair combines for 32.7 points and 24.2 boards per game. Paced by their starting frontcourt duo, the Colonials lead the NCAA with 50.9 rebounds per game and have outrebounded their opponents in all 11 contests this season by an average of 17.1 per game, a margin which ranks fourth nationally.
After opening the season with seven wins in its first eight games, Illinois (7-3) has dropped two in a row with losses to Memphis and South Dakota last week. Chatrice White posted her fourth straight double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds and added a program-record seven blocks in Tuesday's 85-76 loss to the Coyotes at the State Farm Center, the first home loss of the season for the Fighting Illini after seven straight wins.
White is nearly averaging a double-double with 18.3 points and 9.8 rebounds per game, ranking ninth and second in the Big Ten, respectively, and she is also second in the conference with 2.8 blocks per contest. Cierra Rice (13.6 ppg) and Kyley Simmons (13.1 ppg) are each averaging better than 13 points per game, as the trio combines for nearly 60 percent of Illinois' scoring this season.
One of the top 3-point shooting teams in the country, Illinois ranks 13th in the NCAA with 8.8 triples made per game behind Simmons, who ranks second in the Big Ten and in the top 20 nationally in 3-point percentage (.485) and 3-pointers made per contest (3.2).
