Game 30: Women at Rhode Island

The #13/13 women's team travels to Kingston, RI to face Rhode Island (7-9, 0-1) at the Ryan Center tonight. GW (13-3, 1-0) is coming off of a big 56-46 home win over Xavier in its Atlantic 10 opener on Sunday. In that one, Jessica Adair had 15 points, six rebounds, and four steals, while Kimberly Beck had 12 points and five rebounds.

The Rams, who were picked to finish 12th out of 14 teams in the A-10, return four starters from the squad that went 6-23 and lost in the opening round of the conference tournament. Rhode Island is led by a preseason All-A-10 Second Team selection in 5-6 senior guard Safi Mojidi (12.1 points per game this season). The Rams have also received strong performances from 5-10 junior guard/forward Sierra Cooper (9.1 points, 6.5 rebounds) and 5-10 junior guard Amanda McGrew (8.4 points). Coach Tom Garrick is 40-82 in his fifth season at Rhode Island.

Rhode Island is coming off of a 91-53 loss at Massachusetts on Saturday. In that one, McGrew had 12 points, while 5-8 junior guard Crystal Bellinger had 10 points. However, the Minutewomen built a 42-19 halftime lead and shot 27-51 (52.9%) from the field. The Rams have lost three-straight coming into this one and are 4-3 at the Ryan Center. Rhode Island played a ranked team earlier this season, losing 80-47 at home to #16/17 West Virginia on November 24.

This is the 36th-ever meeting between these programs; GW is 31-4. The last meeting was on January 18, 2007 at the Smith Center, which the Colonials won 61-45. In that one, #11/13 GW had three players in double figures in scoring: Beck (17 points, six assists), Adair (16 points, nine rebounds, five blocks, three steals), and Kenan Cole (11 points, four rebounds). Mojidi led the Rams with 11 points. GW has won the last 12 meetings in the series and is 13-4 at Rhode Island. Coach Joe McKeown is 23-2 against the Rams and 4-0 against Garrick.

These two teams are headed in very opposite directions heading into tonight's matchup. The pick here is for the Colonials to win easily.

Max Feinblatt and Alex Tainsh have the call for WRGW with my handling of production duties. You can listen here starting at 6.40 p.m

Game notes: GW has won eight-straight coming into this one...The Colonials have won 17-straight A-10 regular season games and their last 10 league road games...GW's last road loss in A-10 play was 67-62 at Xavier on February 3, 2006...The Colonials moved up four spots from #17 in both polls this week...Whitney Allen needs one rebound to move into 11th place in program history...Beck needs four steals to pass Kristin McArdle for fifth place in program history...McKeown needs five victories for 500 for his career...Rhode Island hasn't had a winning record in conference play in 10 years and has had just two since the league began in 1983-1984.

Starting lineups and other notes to follow from the Ryan Center once we get closer to tip-off. Please check back later.

Update, 9.44 p.m. - Here were the starting lineups:

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)

Rhode Island
G - Safi Mojidi (5-6 senior from Silver Spring, MD)
G - Crystal Bellinger (5-8 junior from New York, NY)
F - Sierra Cooper (5-10 junior from Blairs, VA)
C - Tanja Licina (6-1 junior from Belgrade, Serbia)
C - Whitney Hollis (6-3 senior from Brooklyn, NY)

It wasn't pretty, but after trailing most of the way, the women were able to come away with a three-point victory. Beck scored 23 of her career-high 25 points after intermission to single-handedly lift GW to the win.

Ugly numbers as the Colonials shot 18-56 (32.1%) from the field and 3-13 (23.1%) from behind the three-point line. After the game, McKeown said it was a "hangover" effort following the big Xavier triumph on Sunday. GW was very lucky not to suffer another bad loss tonight.

The women will be back in action on Saturday afternoon when they visit Temple. As always, thanks for stopping by.