Women’s basketball came undone in their last game against University of Massachusetts Amherst, falling 84-61 in their final regular-season game Saturday and dropping from the third to seventh seed.
The Colonials (17-12, 9-7 A-10) failed to stop the league’s top-scoring Minutewomen (25-5, 14-2 A-10) and the explosive showing that kicked off halfway through the first quarter. The Colonials are now ranked No. 7 in the Atlantic 10 Championship, where they will skip the first round of play.
Freshman guard Nya Robertson led GW with 15 points, four assists and three turnovers followed by senior guard Nya Lok with 10 points, two assist and one steal to keep the Colonials steady in the game.
The game kicked off scoring with a jumper and 3-pointer from the Minutewomen, who made all seven attempted 3s while the Colonials shot 4-8 from the long range in the first 10 minutes of the game. An early substitution for the Colonials that brought Robertson to the court gave GW its first 3-pointer 18 seconds after the substitution to make the score 11-10.
The Colonials’ offense became sluggish in the seventh minute where they fell into a two-minute-long scoring drought while the Minutewomen went on an 8-point run to bolster their lead. A 3-pointer by Robertson ended the dry spell to kickstart a final 5-point run for GW that would keep the team at 29-16.
The Minutewomen extended their lead to 13 in the 10th minute with a jumper from graduate student forward Sam Breen.
The Colonials cut the Minutewomen’s lead to 9 points in the second quarter, but UMass responded with a 9-1 run to send them into the half with a 17-point lead. Junior guard Asjah Inniss stepped up in the second quarter, scoring 5 points that included a fast break 3-pointer after a steal to make the score 46-29.
UMass would remain out of reach for the Colonials with a 53 percent shooting percentage in the second quarter but would decrease their 3-point shooting to 0 percent after the Colonials’ defense kept the team off the 3-point line.
The Minutewomen continued their dominance in the second half, shooting 60 percent from the field and increasing their lead to 25 points at the end of the third quarter. GW would be unable to make up the differential for the remainder of the game, only decreasing it by 2 points.
The Colonials made a run in the fourth quarter, where they outscored the Minutewomen 19-17, but were unable to make a meaningful dent and ultimately fell 84-61.
Questionable shot selection and a delayed defense could not keep the Minutewomen from taking advantage of the open paint to take home a final win on senior day ahead of the A-10 Championship, consolidating their first-seed status.
The Colonials will travel to Wilmington, Delaware March 1, where they will take on the victor of the matchup against No. 10 seed Duquesne and No. 15 seed Loyola Chicago in the second round of the A-10 tournament.