Women’s Basketball Recap: Flyers Win At GW For First Time Since 2012

Steve Miller
Sports Editor

For the first time since the 2012 season, Dayton’s women’s basketball team knocked off George Washington at the Charles E. Smith Center on Sunday afternoon 57-53. The Flyers and Colonials have combined for four of the past six Atlantic 10 Tournament championships, and matchups between the two teams are always competitive.

Hard Fought History, Resilient Outcome

“We knew it was going to be a battle coming in, we know [George Washington] and how they play on their own floor,” said coach Shauna Green after the victory.

“Every time we’ve been here it’s just been a tough, tight, possession-by-possession game.”

Dayton defeated GW 66-55 in January at UD Arena, but had lost four consecutive games against the Colonials in Washington. Last season, the Flyers managed just 39 points their loss in D.C., which ended a season-long 11-game win streak.
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Sunday, though, Dayton flipped the ending. With their victory, the Flyers extended their current win streak to 14 games and remained a perfect 13-0 in the A-10.

The Flyers used strong second and third quarters (21 and 20 points, respectively) to build their advantage, but were limited to just eight points in both the first and fourth quarters.

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Every Point Counts

In the closing seconds of the third, after the Colonials had cut Dayton’s lead from 14 to nine, senior point guard Jenna Burdette took the inbounds pass and made a nearly half-court three pointer as the buzzer sounded. The shot pushed Dayton’s lead to 12 points going into the final 10 minutes.

“That was a big three that she hit on the buzzer when we were struggling offensively,” Green said of her senior leader.

“And she hit that and it gave us some momentum going in.”

Burdette’s successful heave, it turned out, was the second in as many days for a Dayton point guard. Freshman Jalen Crutcher made a shot from beyond half court for Dayton’s men’s team to close out the first half of their overtime loss to VCU Saturday night.

For Burdette and the women’s team, though, the shot ended up being far more critical as George Washington battled back to tie the Flyers at 53 with just over a minute to play.

However, senior forward Alex Harris responded with a layup and UD was able to hold off GW on their final possessions.

“When we weren’t scoring at a high level in the fourth — we only had eight points — but we continued to get stops,” Green said.

“That’s what we hang our hat on, that’s what we talk about in our program every day is that’s what we can control. And our defense won that at the end.”
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What’s next?

Dayton is off for a full week before they return to UD Arena on Feb. 18 to host Fordham for the Flyers’ Senior Day. Then, UD takes on George Mason Wednesday before closing out the regular season the following Saturday at Saint Louis.

“Number one we have to get healthy. Number two, I mean, we need to get rest. And then we can look at some things in practice to really make some adjustments,” Green said.

“So it’s gonna be a crucial week in terms of on the floor and off the floor, but we need to use it to the best we can because we have three really really tough games coming up to end this conference play.”

Photo Taken By Griffin Quinn/Staff Photographer