Colonials Claim First Atlantic 10 Tournament Title In Over A Decade

Basking in the glory of an Atlantic 10 Tournament championship, the conference's Player of The Year, Jonquel Jones, refused to use the term "put the team on her back" to describe a critical stretch of the second half of Sunday's tourney final against Dayton.

But it sure looked that way.

Holding a one-point lead at 51-50, having erased an eight-point halftime deficit, Jones, in a period of 70 seconds near the midway point of the second half, nailed two three-pointers and forced a traditional three-point play in the paint, drawing a foul on the previous Player of The Year, Andrea Hoover. The Flyers called timeout to douse the fire. It was 60-52, and the Flyers never threatened again, as George Washington captured the Atlantic 10 Championship with a 75-62 win Sunday at the Richmond Coliseum.

"I just stepped into the moment in that brief period of time," Jones explained, one not interested in bringing attention to herself, preferring to defer to her teammates.

"Jonquel broke the single-season rebounding record for George Washington and I brought it up to her and she said, 'Coach, I'd prefer we not even bring it up to the team'", said head coach Jonathan Tsipis. "She stretched out today, knocked the threes down. With her, I still think the sky's the limit."

To be sure, even though Jones led the way Sunday with 21 points and six rebounds, even after being saddled with foul trouble, she certainly wasn't alone in bringing a trophy back up I-95 to the Nation's Capital.

Caira Washington, quietly and effectively, registered a double-double with ten points and ten rebounds, Chakecia Miller scored 12 points, going six-of-nine from the field, while Hannah Schaible jumped, dove, and did whatever necessary to keep plays alive, with eleven rebounds to go with her seven points. Schaible, listed a five-foot-nine, much like her opponent, Atlantic 10 Sixth Player of The Year Amber Deane, will go anywhere, do anything to get her hands on the basketball.

That attitude gave George Washington a huge advantage in rebounding, 56-34 over Dayton. It was one that made Flyers head coach Jim Jabir take notice.

"They used their athleticism and strength to wear us down," Jabir said. "We just had a conversation in the locker room and we identified the issues that cost us this game, and I asked them if they were still with me. I pointed out a loss is a good thing, if you improve."

For twenty minutes, it looked as if Dayton would erase the memories of last year's tournament final defeat at the hands of Fordham when the Flyers were the top-seed. Led by Ally Malott's twelve first-half points, Dayton took a 37-29 lead into the locker room. Jones had been on the bench for the final 10:35 of the half with two fouls. Schaible had three.

But the Colonials went work immediately in the second half, taking the lead on a Shannon Cranshaw three-point play at 40-39 just before the first media timeout at 15:58 to go. The Flyers, though suffering from cold shooting, stayed stride for stride with the Colonials for the next four minutes. Then the stage was set for the decisive 70 seconds of the contest.

After the 9-2 Jones run, and the subsequent Dayton timeout, the Colonials kept the foot on the gas. When Lauren Chase hit a jumper with 6:54 left, it was 67-54. Their defense allowed just eight more points as the Flyers could not buy a basket, mostly due to defensive adjustments Tsipis and company put into effect after halftime.

But, in the end, the victory was built, over forty minutes, when Jones was on or off the court, was built on the boards.

"Our team has a lot of pride in a lot of things, but I think the number one thing from a team effort standpoint is rebounding," Tsipis said. "We talked about how much better we could be because we could control that, we could rebound. It goes back to my first year when we had two six-foot kids in the post, we just felt like if we could emphasis that and control that, and the thing was, coming into halftime, we were doing a great job of that. I think whenever you get an offensive rebound, whether you score or not, it becomes back-breaking."

The game, fittingly, ended as Washington grabbed an offensive rebound of a missed Jones three-pointer with 38 seconds left, then, 25 seconds later, Schaible capped the Colonials scoring with a layup. 13 seconds later, they were champions.

While the Colonials grab the automatic NCAA Tournament bid, the Flyers are expected to receive an at-large bid at 25-6. Three of those six losses came at the hands of George Washington.