Friday, December 2, 2022

Women's Basketball: George Washington 74 Ohio 57

From our friends at GW Athletics...

Women's Basketball Takes Ohio in a Runaway, 74-57

Nya Robertson and Jayla Thornton combine for 47 points in dominant victory

Back at home on Friday night after playing three times zones away in its last three contests, the George Washington women's basketball team quickly adapted back to familiar surroundings and snapped a mini two-game skid with a resounding 74-57 win over the Ohio University Bobcats.

Pressed into the starting role for the first time this season, senior point guard Aurea Gingras facilitated easy offense to get the Buff and Blue out to a quick start. Her four first-quarter assists, just one off a career high for a full game in just 10 minutes of play, keyed an attack that dropped 23 points in the opening stanza, 14 of which came off the scorching hands of Jayla Thornton. GW then extended a 23-17 lead after one into a 38-28 margin at the break, and didn't look back in the second half.



Thornton finished with 23 points, no stranger to prolific scoring nights as the grad student and Syracuse-transfer previously lit up DC with more than 1,000 points scored at Howard before her days with the Orange. With Thornton dropping bombs from long range (7-of-13 3pt. FGs), senior forward Mayowa Taiwo took care of business on the interior. Taiwo's massive game-high 17 rebounds in a double-double showing powered a team-rebounding effort that outdid the Bobcats 48-22 on the glass. That discrepancy included a 14-3 edge on the offensive boards, which GDUB parlayed into a 14-2 advantage in second chance points in the 17-point win.

The home team led nearly wire-to-wire, save for an opening free throw from Ohio before Thornton got started. The lead grew to 14 early in the third quarter and again at the break entering the fourth, with GW leading 59-45 going into the final 10 minutes.

Thornton's night wasn't done early, as a fourth quarter-opening triple gave her 23 points, and when first-year Nya Robertson drained a triple of her own to follow, the lead hit 20 and it was easy skating from there. Robertson entered halftime with two points, yet exploded for 22 in the second, as the sixth-year Thornton and rookie Robertson staged their own basketball version of Irving Berlin's Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better, with Robertson finishing with a game-high 24.

A trip to TCU shows next on GW's schedule as the team hits Robertson's home state to clash with the Horned Frogs Monday night at 7:30. George Washington returns home through the holidays for a three-game home stand starting next Friday night, December 9th, vs. Manhattan at 6pm on ESPN+.

Click here for today's box score.