The University of Rhode Island women’s basketball team dropped its second straight game to end the regular season on Saturday against George Washington University, securing fifth place in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings.
After having its three-game win streak snapped in a 67-63 loss against Saint Louis University on Feb. 26, URI found itself on the outskirts of the last double-bye spot for the A-10 tournament.
The Rams had a 10-4 home record under their belt heading into their final game at the Ryan Center this season. GW’s Head Coach Caroline McCombs had also stepped down on Feb. 24. Despite this, a shooting day of 27.7% from the field prevented the Rams from victory, falling 54-46.
As a result of strong defense from the Revolutionaries, Rhody trailed for the final five minutes of the first quarter, heading into the second frame down 11-9. URI shot 3-16 from the field, with 1-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Third-year forward Anaelle Dutat led the Rams with seven points.
URI took the lead back on a three-pointer by fourth-year center Harsimran Kaur at 7:37, but it was quickly squashed off by a Revolutionaries 7-0 scoring run, going up 20-14. The Rams tied things up again before the end of the half, but GW executed offensively and went up 24-20 at halftime.
With only one attempted three, the Revolutionaries made things happen down low, scoring 18 of their points in the paint in comparison to URI’s two in the half. Additionally, URI had a similar second quarter of shooting, going 4-16 from the field, bringing its halftime percentage to 21.9%.
First-year guard Gabby Reynolds hit a statement three-pointer for the Revolutionaries to start the second half, earning her team’s biggest lead of the afternoon at seven points. Using her physicality along the boards, second-year guard Kamari Sims converted a three-point play to put the Revolutionaries up 32-24 at 3:16.
The Rams headed into the final quarter down 36-29, on track to have their lowest scoring performance of the season.
Fifth-year forward Paige Mott converted a three-point play in the opening minute of the fourth quarter to extend GW’s lead to 10. From there, the Revolutionaries leading scorer, fifth-year guard Makayla Andrews, put GW up by 12.
Rhody began a full-court press on the Revolutionaries, building energy off of a steal and back-to-back scores by Dutat to get within four points. Second-year guard Katie Ledden had URI’s fourth three-pointer of the game to cut the deficit to three, but GW had a response with a 5-0 scoring run to go back up by eight points.
URI could not find a response for the remaining two minutes, as it dropped its 15th game of the year, ending its season with an overall record of 16-15. Dutat led the Rams with 17 points in the contest.
“It’s not that our defense was so bad, but that was one of the worst offensive outputs I’ve seen of us all season,” URI Head Coach Tammi Reiss said. “It started with us off the court these past couple of days. I thought our attitudes did not click, even at Saint Louis. We have, right now, a little bit of a lack of leadership.”
Following the loss, Reiss discussed her displeasure with the team’s mindset heading into the game.
“ Winning wasn’t the most important thing,” Reiss said. “I just don’t think we were focused on that for whatever reason. We weren’t focused as a collective whole, and we played that way. You’re not going to win when you’re not fighting for each other and you’re not playing for each other.”
Although Rhody will not have a double-bye in the A-10 Tournament, Reiss has a different perspective about playing sooner rather than later.
“ I think with the double-bye, sometimes there’s rust because you sit so long,” Reiss said. “ I liked the double-bye, coming in fourth place. But we’ve traditionally been okay with the single-bye, and it’s actually worked in our favor a little bit better than the double-bye.”
URI will have an opportunity for revenge against GW in the second round of the A-10 Tournament, which will stream on ESPN+ at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday.
