Game 32: Women at Temple

The #13/13 women's team travels to Philadelphia, PA to face Temple (8-10, 1-1) this afternoon at the Liacouras Center. GW (14-3, 2-0) is coming off of a come-from-behind 48-45 win at Rhode Island on Wednesday night. In that one, Kimberly Beck had a career-high 25 points, 23 of which came in the second half, to almost single-handedly lead the Colonials to victory.

The Owls, who were picked to finish fourth out of 14 teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference, return three starters from the squad that went 25-8 and lost to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Temple is led by 5-5 senior guard Ashley Morris (14.1 points, 3.5 assists per game this season), preseason All-A-10 First Team selection 6-2 senior center Lady Comfort (8.5 points, 8.1 rebounds), and Third Team selection 5-6 sophomore guard LaKeisha Eaddy (8.2 points). Coach Dawn Staley, a three-time A-10 Coach of the Year selection, is 159-77 in eight years at Temple. Staley played in the WNBA until 2006 and was named to the league's All-Decade Team. She is also a three-time Olympic gold medal winner.

Temple is coming off of a 73-62 home win over St. Bonaventure on Tuesday night. In that one, three Owls reached double figures in scoring: Eaddy (13 points), 6-0 freshman guard Lindsay Kimmel (13 points), and 6-2 junior forward Shenita Landry (12 points, nine rebounds). The win over the Bonnies snapped a four-game losing streak that had started with a 70-34 loss at #6 Rutgers on December 30. In non-conference play, Temple played three teams currently ranked in the top 10 of the RPI (0-3), and four currently ranked between 11th and 44th (1-3). The Owls are holding opponents to 28.8% shooting from three-point land.

This is the 46th-ever meeting between these programs; GW is 28-17. The last meeting came on February 25, 2007 at the Smith Center, which the #9/9 Colonials won 56-53 on Senior Day. In that one, Sarah-Jo Lawrence had 19 points to lead the way despite the fact that the Colonials were outrebounded 48-27. While GW has won three of the last four meetings in the series, and 26 of the last 30, the Colonials are only 9-8 at Temple.

Temple's record is deceiving, as the talent is much better than the 8-10 record indicates. Despite a poor showing on Wednesday, I'm picking the Colonials to bounce back with a strong performance against the Owls.

Adam Rosenbloom and Alex Tainsh have the call for WRGW with Steven Smith handling production duties. You can listen here starting at 1.40 p.m.

Game notes: GW has won nine-straight coming in...The Colonials have won 18-straight A-10 regular season games and their last 11 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...Coach Joe McKeown returns to his native Philadelphia for this one...McKeown is 46-15 at GW in games played in Philadelphia...McKeown is 26-6 all-time against Temple and 9-4 against Staley...Staley is 4-9 against McKeown's GW squads...Whitney Allen needs three steals to enter the top 15 in program history...Allen needs three blocks to enter the top 10 in program history...McKeown is four victories shy of 500 for his career.

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

Update, 2.21 p.m. - Here are 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)

Temple
G - Ashley Morris (5-5 senior from Philadelphia, PA)
G - LaKeisha Eaddy (5-6 sophomore from Columbia, MD)
G - Lindsay Kimmel (6-0 freshman from Binghamton, NY)
F - Shanea Cotton (6-4 junior from Gulfport, MS)
C - Lady Comfort (6-2 senior from Pensacola, FL)

Update, 2.52 p.m. - GW trails at the half for the second time in three A-10 games this season. As a comparison, the Colonials never trailed at intermission in 16 conference games a year ago.

Update, 6.43 p.m. - The women fall by two, snapping a nine-game winning streak and a 19-game A-10 regular season winning streak. Despite falling down in the second half, GW battled back to take the lead but botched a couple of key opportunities in the final minute.

You have to be somewhat concerned about the way the team is playing. With this squad consisting of almost the same personnel as last season, their performance in the two games this past week is disappointing.

This isn't a crippling loss in terms of NCAA Tournament seeding, as Temple is in the top 100 of the RPI and should continue to rise after facing a rough non-conference schedule. However, GW really can't afford another slip-up if it wants to do better than last season's five-seed.

The men tip-off against Xavier in just over an hour. As always, thanks for stopping by.