Game three: Women at Maryland-Baltimore County

The #14/13 women's team opens the regular season on the road against Maryland-Baltimore County tonight. This will mark the first regular season game for freshman Erica Rivera and transfer Antelia Parrish.

The Colonials were the unanimous preseason pick to win the Atlantic 10 by coaches and media members. Joe McKeown and company return four starters from the squad that advanced all the way to the second weekend of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Last Friday, GW used Parrish's 18 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists to beat the DT-3 All-Stars 95-68 in their only exhibition game of the season.

Maryland-Baltimore County was selected to finish sixth out of nine teams in the preseason America East Conference coaches' poll. The Retrievers were also tabbed to finish sixth a year ago, but won the America East Conference Tournament for the first time in program history by knocking off each of the top three seeds. UMBC was then throttled by #1 seed Connecticut in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament by a score of 82-33.

The Retrievers return only two starters from last season's 16-17 squad. With 64% of the offense gone, coach Phil Stern's leading returning scorer is senior guard Kristin Drabyn (9.6 points per game), an outside threat who drained 68 threes a season ago. UMBC welcomes six new players into its program this year.

This will be the seventh-ever meeting between these two programs; GW is 6-0. In last year's season opener on November 10 at the Smith Center, the Colonials beat UMBC 72-58 behind Kenan Cole's 14 points and eight rebounds. While five GW players reached double figures in scoring, McKeown's squad struggled with its perimeter defense, allowing Maryland-Baltimore County to connect on 10 three-pointers.

With all of the new faces on this UMBC squad, you have to expect the Colonials to roll.

Steven Smith and Eric Struening have the call for WRGW with David Earl and Ross Romano handling production duties. You can listen here starting at 7.10 p.m.

Game notes: The Colonials are 11-7 in season openers under McKeown...The last season-opening loss came on November 18, 2005 against Virginia at the Smith Center by a score of 65-52...This is the first time GW has opened the season on the road since a 67-62 win at Georgetown on November 19, 2004...Kimberly Beck is 17 points shy of becoming the 23rd GW player in program history with 1,000 career points...Sarah-Jo Lawrence is 62 points away from the same plateau...This is the first of GW's 13 games against teams who reached the postseason a year ago.

Starting lineups and other notes to follow from the WRGW studios and RAC Arena once we get closer to tip-off. I am away for the weekend, so Julian Gompertz and Greg Shapiro will be doing live blogging all night. Check back later.

Update, 7.55 p.m. - Here were the starting lineups. I apologize for the lack of updates.

GW
G - Kimberly Beck (5-8 senior from Fairburn, GA)
G - Sarah-Jo Lawrence (5-11 senior from Rhoadesville, VA)
F - Whitney Allen (5-11 senior from Woodbridge, VA)
F - Antelia Parrish (6-0 junior from Washington, DC)
C - Jessica Adair (6-4 junior from Washington, DC)

Maryland-Baltimore County
G - Kristin Drabyn (5-7 senior from Avon, IN)
G - Michele Brokans (5-8 freshman from Lansdale, PA)
G - Chantay Frazier (5-8 junior from Carthage, MS)
G - Carlee Cassidy (5-9 sophomore from Syracuse, NY)
G - Morgan Hatten (5-10 senior from Potomac, MD)

GW struggled early on the offensive end, starting 1-7 from the field. The Colonials have now battled back to take a slim lead despite shooting only 27%. Interesting to see Beck and Rivera sharing time on the court.

Update, 9.03 p.m. - Midway through the second half, and the Colonials have a 14 point lead. GW was down 9-3 at the start but used a 13-2 run in the middle of the first half to climb on top, and have kept a steady lead ever since.

Parrish has been the story of the evening leading all scorers with 17 points to go with seven rebounds as well. McKeown claimed it would take her awhile to hit her stride, but she looks like she is in mid-season form.

Update, 9.14 p.m. - And with that, Beck has recorded her 1,000th point as a Colonial. Beck becomes the 23rd Colonial to reach the plateau; she will also likely eclipse both Colleen McCrea and Kathy Marshall to become the all-time assists leader during conference play this season.

Update, 9.23 p.m. - The Colonials win 79-59 as Beck, Parrish, Lawrence, and Allen all reached double figures. A solid performance all-around as the Colonials, who played lackluster basketball in the first twenty minutes, came out firing in the second half to take the Retrievers out of it early on.

The highlight of the evening was Beck becoming the 23rd Colonial to score 1,000 points donning the buff and blue, and she will continue to lead the way for GW as the women travel to Virginia on Monday night.

Stay tuned for postgame audio coming in later this evening.

Update, 1.49 a.m. - There is no audio because there was no postgame press conference. This happens from time-to-time, particularly at smaller schools. Anyhow, my apologies for the lack of updates tonight. We'll be back to normal for the men's game against Mount St. Mary's, as Julian Gompertz will be reporting live from the Smith Center. Hope to see you back here in 12 hours. Thanks for stopping by.