Rams Fall to #24/23 George Washington Despite Late Comeback, 65-57

Box Score

The Basics

Score: #24/23 George Washington 65, VCU 57
Records: VCU (14-12, 5-8), #24/23 GW (23-3, 12-1)
Location: Verizon Wireless Arena at the Stuart C. Siegel Center, inside the HDL, Inc. Athletic Village
The Short Story: Despite forcing 18 turnovers, VCU fell at home to #24/23 George Washington 65-57. Sophomore Isis Thorpe led the way with 17 points while sophomore Chadarryl Clay added 15.

How It Happened

Tonight marked the first time this season that the Rams faced off against a ranked team, and despite the elevated level of competition they were able to hang around all night. Halfway through the first half VCU found itself tied with GW 12-12 behind a 3-pointer from Clay. The Colonials proceeded to rattle off a 10-0 run to grab its first double-digit lead of the game.
Thanks to some skillful shooting from Thorpe, the Rams cut their deficit to two, 22-20. However, George Washington would not relinquish its lead, and VCU entered halftime down 31-26. Thorpe led all Rams with nine first half points while Ashlee Mitchell added three steals.
After a bucket from Adaeze Alaeze coming out of halftime, the Colonials pushed ahead with a 12-2 run that gave them a 43-30 lead at the 15:40 mark.
VCU managed to pull back within eight before another George Washington scoring run put the Rams behind 61-44 with just under six minutes remaining.
Never ones to back down, the Rams began a spirited comeback attempt in the games' closing minutes, pulling within two possessions with less than a minute remaining. However, it would not be enough to overcome the George Washington lead, and in the end VCU found itself on the losing end of a 65-57 decision.

Quotable

"Overall I thought our intensity was there from start to finish. When you play a team like George Washington, you have to do everything well. You have to make your foul shots down the stretch, you have to box out well. There were spurts there where they pushed it to a double-digit lead, and that's tough to come back on." -- Head Coach Beth O'Boyle
On Chadarryl Clay: "I think one thing that Chad has been doing well for us is attacking the rim. It's hard to attack the rim when they are 6-5 and 6-3 in there, but I thought our post players did a good job of battling their height for 40 minutes; but when you give up 18 offensive rebounds to a team like GW, it's tough to pull off the win." -- Head Coach Beth O'Boyle
Looking ahead to UMass: "I think we are a young team and right now we are in the process of it, and we are in that tough stretch. In any of the previous games, it's not that we did one thing wrong consistently, it's been a little bit here and a little bit there. That's very common in young teams. I think for us as a coaching staff, we have to make sure that we are competing, we are sticking together, and these next three games we get ourselves back on the right track." -- Head Coach Beth O'Boyle

Beyond the Box Score

Clay scored 15 points for the second consecutive game. She also made her first career start for the Black & Gold.
This is the first time since February 24, 2008, the Rams hosted a nationally-ranked opponent in the Siegel Center.
Mitchell's five steals in the game, was a new career-best.

Up Next

VCU hosts Massachusetts this Sunday, February 22 at 1 pm in the annual Play4Kay game.