Lady ‘Cats Take Down George Washington, 60-45

The Wildcats were fresh off a Big 5 victory over Saint Joe’s on Sunday and were looking to win their third straight against the George Washington Colonials.

The Colonials were just 2-6 on the season and ‘Nova was looking to take advantage of their soft defense and explode from behind the three-point arc.

Junior Kelly Jekot was leading the ‘Cats with just over 14 points per game on the season and opened the scoring with the first basket of the game. A three-pointer from Adrianna Hahn midway through the first quarter finished off an 11-4 run to start the game. The Colonials woke up with baskets from Mei-Lyn Bautista and Neila Luma, cutting into the lead. Another jumper from Jekot pushed the lead to 13-9 in favor of the Wildcats and that is how the score stayed for the rest of the quarter.

The teams traded baskets for the first few minutes of the second quarter before some great defense sparked a 10-0 run for the ‘Cats the culminated in a 28-16 lead. Two three-pointers from the Colonials in the final minute of the half, including one at the buzzer, cut the ‘Cats lead to 28-22.

Senior Jannah Tucker was leading the scoring for the Wildcats with eleven points while Mary Gedaka was pacing the team with 6 rebounds. The Wildcats were executing well both offensively and defensively, keeping the Colonials at bay and looking like they were in control of the tempo.

Gedaka jumped out of the gate with a layup seconds into the second half and Adrianna Hahn responded a minute later with a three-pointer. Hahn added another three-pointer on the next possession and the ‘Cats jumped out to an 8-0 run to start the second half. Luma broke the streak with a layup for the Colonials but both teams went a few minutes without scoring as the Wildcats held on to a double digit lead. Gedaka broke the almost four-minute scoreless drought to push the Wildcats lead to 15. The Colonials chipped back at the lead and the ‘Cats took a 41-30 lead into the final quarter of action.

The final quarter of action got off to an interesting start with Mary Gedaka picking up a technical foul a minute into it. Despite her sitting out for the reminder of the game, the Colonials were not able to capitalize. The ‘Cats maintained the double digit lead, including baskets from Emily Esposito and Brianna Herlihy. They dribbled out the remaining seconds of the game and the final score finished 60-45 in favor of Villanova.

Hahn finished with 18 points, all of which came from behind the arc. Gedaka added 13 points and 9 rebounds and Tucker added 11 points as well. Bautista and Luma were the only GW players in double digits, scoring 18 and 14 points respectively.

A good judgement on how well the game went for the ‘Cats is how they dead behind the arc and in the paint. They scored 18 points in the paint and went 10-34 from behind the arc, not a great performance from deep, but their defense held the Colonials offense at bay. ‘Nova had great ball movement all game and assisted on 19 of their 24 FGs. Interesting stat, both teams finished with exactly 61 possessions (‘Nova got .98 points per possession while GW got .73 points per possession),

The ‘Cats improve to 6-2 on the season and are back home to take on Big 5 rival Temple, who have lost their last 5 in a row.