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 The Colonials shot a season-low 27 percent from the foul line in the loss |
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GW Loses to Richmond, 67-63, Tied for Second in A-10
Feb. 19, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC - The Colonials (18-7, 11-3) lost 67-63 to Richmond (12-14, 7-7) to snap an 11-game home winning streak. Richmond who has beaten GW, Charlotte, No.23/22 Temple and Rhode Island over the last four games is the hottest team in the A-10 despite having a .500 conference record. GW dropped into a tie with Temple for second in the A-10 which will be settled on Friday when the Colonials take on the Owls in Philadelphia at 7:00 p.m.
Richmond scored 39 points and used the inside-outside combination of Amber Petillon and Gil Araceli, both of whom had 20-plus points to comeback against GW. The Colonials led for the entire first half and were ahead 32-28 at halftime before Richmond open the second half with 10 unanswered points. The Colonials could never recover despite Kimberly Beck's 17 points and six assists.
GW shot a season low 27 percent from the foul line on 6-22 for a season low. Jessica Simmonds, who injured her right wrist went 1-10 from the line including a late miss that would have cut the score to three with just more than a minute left. GW did shoot almost 51 percent from the field making at least half of its shots in each half. The Colonials actually shot better with 30 percent from three point range, where Beck made three, than they did from the foul line.
The Colonials are 0-6 this season when they trail at the five minute mark and today was no exception. GW was outrebounded 35-32 and is 5-7 when it loses the battle of the boards. Richmond turned 11 GW turnovers into 17 points even though the Colonials swiped 13 steals from the Spiders they led to only eight points. The Colonials missed the scoring production of Kenan Cole who missed the entire second half with a right knee injury.
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Down the stretch, Beck had an incredible series with a block on a Richmond layup and she then drew an offensive foul to get the Colonials the ball back. On the Colonials offensive side, Beck drained her third three pointer of the game to cut the Spiders lead to four points. Later Beck found Simmonds open under the basket for her sixth assists to again cut the lead to four. Simmonds was fouled on the basket but missed from the foul line where she shot 1-10 on the day.
Beck made a basket with 18.3 second left on a running jumper to make it 65-61 but committed a turnover on the previous possession with a walk when GW could have closed in on the Spiders. Beck finished with 17 points and had 6 assists after reaching the 300 mark in assists at the end of her last game.
The Spiders started the second half with a 10-0 run to take their first lead at the 17:46 mark on two Alison Mitchell foul shots. Richmond went up by seven, GW's largest lead, at the end of their run to take a 38-31 with 15:47 left. Gil made three-straight three pointers, she finished with four and 20 points.
Sarah-Jo Lawrence started the second half in place of Cole who hurt her knee at the end of the first half. GW missed its first six shots of the second half and did not score until the 15:28 mark when Lawrence scored her first points of the game. Lawrence had eight second half points to keep the Colonials competitive without Cole, their leading scorer in conference play.
Cole had gotten things going for GW with a baseline-basket to start a Colonials 7-0 run to open the game. Cole scored again at the 18:21 mark, forcing Richmond to use its first time out to stop the run. Richmond did not score until the 16:39 mark and were held from scoring their first field goal until the 15:47 mark. GW entered the game with the stingiest defense in the Atlantic 10 and the eighth-best in the NCAA. GW also allows opponents to shoot only 34.5, which is the sixth best in the nation.
After going ahead by seven points in the opening two minutes, Richmond matched the Colonials for the next 10 minutes before going on a 9-2 run to tie the game at 21 with 6:41 left in the first half. Richmond tied it twice more in the first half, but never led, before Beck hit the first three-pointer of the game to help put the Colonials ahead by three going into the half 31-28. Petillon was the factor for Richmond scoring 15 in first-half and 21 in the game including nine in-a-row for Richmond's first tie.
The Colonials will determine their seeding in the Atlantic 10 tournament over their next two games. On Friday, the Colonials travel to No. 23/22 Temple with whom they are for second place in the Atlantic 10. On Sunday, GW concludes the regular season by hosting Charlotte at 2:00 p.m. for the first-ever meeting between the teams. GW entered the game tied for first in the conference with Charlotte but the 49ers beat Saint Louis at home, 65-58, and Temple won at Dayton, 70-36, which led to the Colonials falling to a two-way tie with Temple for second.
