Stanford senior forward Erica McCall and George Washington senior forward Caira Washington battled all night with both finishing with double-double's
The saying goes that basketball is a game of runs, and if the run is big enough, it can be the difference in a win or loss. This applied totally to George Washington's (7-5) 71-52 loss to #14 Stanford (9-2) in which the Colonials saw the Cardinals go on a 30-9 run in the second quarter that blew the game wide open.
The first quarter saw a defensive battle between the two teams that led to ice cold shooting as the Cardinals led 11-10 after one. George Washington shot 15 percent from the field in the quarter while visiting Stanford shot 28 percent. Things changed drastically in the second quarter as the Cardinals, led by an unconscious Brittany McPhee who scored 16 first half points on 6-6 shooting from the field, outscored the Colonial's 30-9 to take a 41-19 halftime lead. GW shot an abysmal 18 percent in the quarter while Stanford couldn't miss, shooting 73 percent. In the third period, it was all George Washington. Forward Kelli Prange scored 7 of her 9 points in the third to help lead the Colonials to a spirited 22-13 run in the quarter to get GW back in the game, trailing 54-41. The fourth saw GW continued to battle to overcome the 13 point deficit, eventually cutting Stanford lead to eight, as they trailed 58-50 at the 6:02 mark. The Colonials only scored two points for the rest of the game as the Cardinals turned up the defensive intensity. Stanford rode senior forward Erica McCall who posted 7 of her 13 points in the final period to finish off GW, handing them their first home loss of the season (4-1).
"I was happy that we were able to regroup at halftime and come out and be the better team in the third quarter but obviously it was disappointing we weren't able to hang in there a little bit harder in that second quarter when we had trouble scoring," said George Washington head coach Jennifer Rizzotti. "I wanted them to come out and prove who they were in that third quarter. I don't think they thought for a second that we were out of it and you can see by the way we started the third that they very much felt it was a game we could compete in."
Senior forward Caira Washington finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds (4 offensive) and 2 blocks while point guard Mei-Lyn Bautista posted a team high 12 points. Guard Hannah Schaible while struggling mightily offensively, still managed to grab a game high 14 rebounds with 11 of them being offensive as well as finish with a game high 4 steals. Stanford junior forward Brittany McPhee scored a game high 21 points on 8 of 11 shooting from the field while also grabbing 5 rebounds. Senior forward Erica McCall added a double double of her own with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman forward Nadia Fingall contributed 11 points and 6 rebounds respectively.
GW will next play Loyola (MD) in their final non-conference game Friday at noon.
Stanford junior guard Brittany McPhee shot lights out the entire contest
GW floor general Mei-Lyn Bautista tried her best to give the Colonials an offensive spark but it wasn't enough