Midway through the second half of their Atlantic 10 basketball tournament semifinal yesterday, a Richmond player noticed George Washington senior forward Anna Montañana had blood on her jersey and told the referees she should have to leave the game.
That turned out to be the Spiders' most effective way of stopping Montañana, who had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists in a 63-44 victory before 2,217 at Smith Center.
George Washinton's defense pressured Richmond in to difficult shots the entire game.
(Haraz Ghanbari - AP)
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The Colonials (22-7) advanced to play Temple in the championship game today at 5 p.m. at Smith Center. Temple (26-3) defeated Xavier, 64-61, in the first semifinal yesterday. The Owls have won 23 straight games, the longest current streak in the nation and one that includes a 72-64 win over George Washington on Jan. 27.
The Colonials kept alive a streak of their own yesterday. They have won 10 in a row over Richmond (23-7) dating from 1982. That streak continued largely because of Montañana and junior forward Jessica Simmonds (12 points).
A basket by Richmond junior Alison Mitchell (Paul VI Catholic) late in the first half cut George Washington's lead to 25-23 at halftime.
But the Colonials began the second half with a 10-2 run, culminating in a score by sophomore Kenan Cole (St. John's) for a 35-25 lead with 15 minutes 44 seconds to play. Simmonds had five points and Montañana had a three-pointer in the spurt.
Richmond did not get closer than eight points.
Though Simmonds played just 24 minutes because of foul trouble, GW scored all but 14 of its points when she was in the game. At one point, after Simmonds left midway through the first half, the Colonials went scoreless on seven straight possessions. Simmonds then re-entered the game.
"Montañana and Simmonds work off each other so well, they really feed off each other," Richmond Coach Joanne Boyle said. "We really struggled in the first five minutes of the second half. That broke our back. At that point, I think it [the losing streak] got into our players' heads. I'm not sure they thought they could win."
If the Spiders were daunted by the losing streak, they were hampered even further because senior forward Kate Flavin, the team's leading scorer and rebounder, missed the game because of a knee injury suffered in the regular-season finale.
In her stead, the Spiders made 13 of 44 shots (29.5 percent) and had 20 turnovers. Second-leading scorer Saona Chapman and point guard Araceli Gil became the focus of GW's defense. They combined to make 3 of 17 shots and had 10 points and nine turnovers.
Mitchell had a team-high 13 points for Richmond.
"We had to pressure Gil and Chapman because they're such good players, and we didn't think they could get enough points off their inside players without Flavin," George Washington Coach Joe McKeown said.
Today marks the ninth time George Washington has made the conference final in McKeown's 16 seasons. They last won the title two years ago.
"I think they are going to be tired, and I think we are going to be tired, too," Montañana said. "So the team that does the little things, like boxing out and playing defense, is going to win."
• TEMPLE 64, XAVIER 61: Candice Dupree scored 24 points and Ari Moore made two late free throws to lead the No. 16 Owls into today's other semifinal. Moore and Kamesha Hairston each had 13 points for Temple, which gave Coach Dawn Staley her 100th career win.
The Owls (26-3) can become the first Atlantic 10 team to repeat as tournament champions since Xavier in 2000-01.
Adeola Olanrewaju led Xavier (20-9) with 17 points and Tara Boothe had 15.
