March 18, 2003
Foggy Bottom Turns into Title Town
Colonials Womens Team Defeats Rhode Island to
Win the Atlantic 10 Championship and Earn a Bid to the NCAA Tournament
By Thomas
Kohout
For the first time since the 199596 season, The George Washington
University womens basketball team hoisted the Atlantic 10 Conference
Championship trophy following a sometimes-brutal, defensive struggle
against the University of Rhode Island on March 10. With the victory,
the Colonials head to the NCAA Tournament for the 10th time in 13 years,
by virtue of the automatic bid for conference champions.
GW relied on the broad shoulders of 6'4" center Ugo Ohas
dominating performance to win 5649. The Rams game plan to shut
down A-10 Player of the Year Cathy Joens and the teams perimeter
game nearly worked. An aggressive Rams defense held the Colonials to
just 35.4 percent shooting. It was an uncharacteristic game for GW which
averaged more than 73 points-per-game during the season and hit 48 percent
of its attempts from the field. Instead, GW focused the size mismatch
in the low post position, funneling the ball inside to Oha. The tactic
resulted in career-highs in points (26) and blocks (8) for the junior
from Houston, TX. With her eight rebounds, Oha earned the Most Outstanding
Player award for the tournament. She provided two key plays that broke
open an otherwise tight contest.
A crushing block in the second half against Rhode Islands leading
scorer, Denise King, sent the Rams a message that GW would not be intimidated.
That block came from the soul, said Oha. I just wanted
to shout yeah, I can still block your shot.
In the final minutes of the game Oha dropped in a layup off of an inbounds
pass from senior Erica Lawrence with a Rhode Island defender draped
over her back. The resulting foul shot gave the Colonials all the lead
they needed. Rhode Island was forced to foul the GW in an effort to
stop the clock.
That play really sealed the game for us, added Oha.
[Ohas] not bad for a second-team All Conference selection,
huh? Head Coach Joe McKeown said sarcastically following the game.
The announcement of conference honors, which came at the start of the
tournament in Kingston, RI, March 6, provided extra fuel for a team
looking to make up for missed opportunities last season.
I thought that was a slap in the face to us, it showed a lack
of respect, said McKeown of Ohas second team selection.
I think [Ohas] one of the great college centers. People
dont understand what happens when she gets double-teamed every
game. Every defense we face is geared to stop her.
For the regular season Oha averaged more than 15 points, 6.5 rebounds-per-game,
and totaled 78 blocks surpassing the totals for all of the A-10
teams, except Duquesne and Fordham which recorded 113 each.
During the pregame shoot-around many of the nearly 1,400 fans in attendance
heckled the Rhode Island players, chanting 9038, the
score of the teams Feb. 2 regular season contest. In their first
meeting GW quickly jumped out to a lead, broke the Rams spirit, and
went on to win convincingly. The championship game was considerably
different from the matchup earlier in the season, as the Rams took to
the court with more confidence having beaten Xavier, 5248, in
the semifinals March 8.
In February they gave up in the first 10 minutes, recalled
sophomore forward Anna Montañana, who added nine points and five
rebounds in her 32 minutes of play. Tonight they were more confident,
more aggressive. They were everywhere. They defended really well.
Oha added a possible explanation for the tur around in the Rams performance.
When your life is on the line, she said, referring to the
sudden-death nature of post-season play, you really come to play.
The win ends a seven-season drought in the conference finals for GW.
Last year the team lost in the quarterfinal round to Xavier, a defeat
that eventually cost the team a bid to the NCAA tournament.
Unfortunately, God blessed me with a very good memory, said
McKeown after the game. It has been a while, and its been
a monkey that you want to get rid of.
McKeown added that to some degree he was happier for the automatic bid
to the NCAAs that comes with being the conference champion.
We went 151 [in the conference last year] and didnt
finish the job, recalls McKeown. [This season] I dont
think our players wanted to leave anything to chance.
Of his teams chances on the larger NCAA tournament stage, McKeown,
the A-10s winningest coach, expressed confidence.
We won 21 of our last 22 games. I dont think another team
in the country can say that. Were one of the hottest teams in
the country right now. Given a good seeding and the right matchups we
could do some damage in the tournament.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu