DC Metro Sports - Terps and Colonials Battle Fellow Top 25 Opponents in Sunday Double Header

Written by Adina Ferguson
Monday, 19 November 2007
I’m not going lie, the outcome of Sunday night’s Redskins-Dallas rivalry game didn’t really matter to me. Oh, I enjoy the weeklong trash talk between bus drivers and passengers, barbers and customers, husbands and wives, and then hearing crickets from Redskin households and the unfortunate gloating of my own Cowboy loving parents, but I had to put all NFL Sunday Ticket action on pause as the best basketball programs in the country were going to work on the Lord’s day right here in my own backyard. Never had I done it before, and never had it felt so good to travel cross metro lines as i watched the No. 3 Maryland Terrapins take on No. 4 LSU Tigers and then later witness No.14 George Washington Colonials go to war with No. 6 Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Here’s the best part, I’m not talking about the fellas. Terps Top Tigers The Terps, who were hosting the Women's National Invitational Tournament (WNIT) preason championship, defeated Sylvia Fowles and company 75-62, to grab their first WNIT championship. The crowd of 6,398 was larger than I expected and the game from beginning to end was March Madness like. Usually you don’t get a match-up between top seeds like that until it's time to dance. And even though it was the preseason WNIT, the intensity, team chemistry and electricity was at its peak as guard Kristi Toliver led the (5-0) Terps with 23 points and seven assists. Toliver might have been named the tournament’s most valuable player, but the game belonged to forward Laura Harper, who in the second half did more damage than the California wildfires as she scored 14 of her 16 points. One would have expected Coach Van Chancellor’s Tigers to put in work knowing who they were up against, but the defense just couldn’t stop the the Terps who shot 48.2 percent from the field. If it wasn’t Toliver draining jumpers, or Harper with the serious hustle and putbacks, it was center Jade Perry crashing the boards (as she and Marissa Coleman finished with 11 rebounds each) or making her presence heavily felt in the paint as she finished with 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting. Though Perry was looking like Shaquille O’Neal, in his dominant years (from the field and the free throw line), you have to commend the work of LSU center Sylvia Fowles, who had a game-high 24 points and 13 rebounds. Fowles did have trouble on the defensive end as she had four fouls. When Fowles wasn’t banging bodies down low, guard Quianna Chaney was shooting lights out from the arc as she went 4-of-12 from the three point line and was LSU’s runner up with 23 points. The Terps led most of the game until early in the second half when Chaney made a lay-up to tie it up at 34-34 within seconds of the start of the second half. After that shot, it was an all out war as both teams exchanged baskets, including a lay-up by Fowles that gave the Tigers a 36-34 lead, their first since leading 7-5 at 17:10 in the first half. The Tigers’ comeback was short lived as their shots stopped falling and the Terps began to runaway with the game. There was a serious shift in momentum for Coach Brenda Frese’s team and even the crowd as Marissa Coleman was hit with a technical foul with 15:54 remaining in the game. The refs were serenaded with a loud roar of boos as the call was made after Coleman made a bucket and drew the foul, after which she bumped the chest of LSU's Erica White. Was it high emotions or was Coleman forewarning folks that the Terps weren’t to be taken lightly this season? Either way the Terrapins showed that teams do show up to play, even in November. Colonials Struck with Scarlet Fever Real talk, Matee Ajavon is monstrous on the hardwood. I tried to give No. 14 George Washington Colonials the benefit of the doubt coming into their primetime match-up and early on they stayed within close proximity of the Big East’s Rutgers team, who sported a 9-7 lead with 15:57 in the first half. That was the closest Coach Joe Mckeown’s team would come to C. Vivian Stringer’s squad who went 2-1 after the 67-42 victory. Rutgers held GW to 22 percent shooting from the field, their lowest since 1983, and despite the some-what determined play of Jessica Adair and Kimberly Beck in the first half, the Colonials just didn’t match-up well against Ajavon, Kia Vaughn and Essence Carson who combined for 44 points, two more than the Colonials altogether. Ajavon went 7-of-10 from the field and 4-of-5 from the three point line, while Vaugh controlled both ends of the paint as she grabbed 12 rebounds (8 of which came on the defensive end). With the loss the Atlantic-10 team goes to 3-1, and the Scarlet Knights are moving away from the insulting words of radio personality Don Imus and moving forward to getting back to the NCAA Championship. Rutgers flat out outplayed GW as none of their players reached double figures. Adair, Beck and Sarah-Jo Lawrence finished with nine points each. From the three point line to the defensive rebounds, Rutgers had the Colonials’ number. The Smith Center was rocking from the game’s tip-off, but some students began to file out before Rutgers could take their 19-36 halftime lead. It only got worse as they went on a 20-0 run after the break. You could see the Colonials energy dwindling to the point where Adair didn't even fight for an offensive rebound and most of the team's shots attempts where one and done. " I'm embarrassed for our team and for all the fans [who provided] the tremendous atmosphere to start the game,” said Coach McKeown. If I was them, I’d be embarrassed too. Will GW drop from the Top 25 and will Rutgers be in the top 5, after the LSU loss last night? We’ll find out won’t we?

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