By Cameron Mays
In their first home game of the season, women’s basketball handily defeated Maryland Eastern Shore 65-50 for their first win of the season. A combination of exceptional defense along with hot three-point shooting gave GW the edge.
The first half was defined by lock-down GW defense along with solid shooting. GW held UMES to 21.4% shooting in the first half and 0-8 from three, while connecting on 38.5% of their own triples and 35.7% overall from the floor.
GW conceded only 16 first half points, taking a 14 point lead into the half on the backs of nine points from both senior guard Essence Brown and graduate student guard Mia Lakstigala. Brown was very efficient, connecting on four of her five shots, including going 1-2 from three, adding two assists as well. Lakstigala was solid from deep, scoring all her points from beyond the arc and going 3-7 overall.
“We have just been really working on our shots, and the offensive allows us, when we are moving the ball, to get those shots for each other,” Brown said of the overall offensive structure of the team this year.
Senior forward Mayowa Taiwo was an overpowering force in the first half, doing what she does best by pulling down rebounds. She quickly grabbed her 500th career rebound just a minute and a half into the game, and contributed eight rebounds total in the half. While she did not score in the half, she contributed offensively through solid passing and sealing of defenders to facilitate drives by GW guards.
“Mayowa is an awesome person to have in the program,” Coach McCombs said, “And the work she does out on the court, she snags those rebounds, she makes amazing plays for us defensively. I’m proud for her, I’m happy for her in that accomplishment. She puts in the work, she deserves it.”
While GW played well overall in the first half, turnovers were an issue, as the team gave up the ball ten times, leading to seven UMES steals. Sloppy passing and a solid UMES press contributed to the lopsided number.
“We have to do a better job taking care of the ball,” McCombs said, “I thought we did a good job with that against Virginia, didn’t do as well of a job today. But it was our first home game, getting our kids to play with some confidence after a tough loss was important.”
The second half of the game was much of the same story as the first. GW continued to play with pace on offense, spreading the floor and knocking down threes from all over. On defense they played aggressive and forced UMES to take contested shots.
“Defense is first, closing out with hot hands and limiting them.” Brown said. “One of our aims was to make them take tough, contested, non-point twos, so forcing them to drive.”
UMES guards Zamara Haynes and Mya Thomas both had solid showings to score 19 and 11 points respectively, though both were inefficient, a testament to GW contesting passes and shots. Additionally, senior forward Faith Blethen did a great job by sealing off UMES players in the post to prevent entry passes.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter GW opened up their largest lead of the night at 28. McCombs took the starters out, leading to a sustained UMES run to cut the lead down to 15, but were not able to get past that mark as freshman guard Nya Robertson and Blethen got hot, both scoring seven points in the quarter.
Overall, GW shot 43.3% from the floor and 34.5% from three. UMES shot just 29% from the floor and 5.9% from three. GW outrebounded UMES 45 to 32 and had 11 more assists, 17-6.
Like last game, sophomore forward Maxine Engel and senior guard Sheslanie Laureano did not play. There is optimism that Engel will play on Monday at Howard, while Laureano will likely remain out. That Howard game is set for Monday at 7 PM and it can be streamed here on gwradio.com and Howard’s website.
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