March 29, 2024
BANGOR DAILY NEWS (BANGOR, MAINE

Colonials tourney hardened> GW making its 3rd straight appearance

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – It’s easy to figure the reason for the squeals and shouts of joy that erupted from the University of Maine women’s basketball team Sunday when it learned its first-round opponent in the NCAA Tournament.

Last year the Black Bears were seeded 16th against the undefeated, unrelenting, No. 1 Connecticut Huskies. This year, they were seeded No. 11 in the East against No. 6 George Washington.

Yet, while the Colonials are no squad of All-American giants, they have spent the last five years becoming a formidable team in the East and a respectable one in the nation. Lighting a fire doesn’t quite describe George Washington’s recent success in performing consistently at a national level. It’s been more of a firestorm.

The Colonials, under seven-year coach Joe McKeown, were seeded No. 10 in 1991, No. 8 in 1992, No. 7 in 1994, and No. 4 in the Midwest in 1995 when they reached the Sweet Sixteen before losing to No. 1 Midwest seed Colorado.

In its third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, George Washington steps into the national spotlight during its sixth consecutive 20-win season. GW is 156-59 under McKeown.

To make matters worse for the Bears, the Colonials are 4-0 in the first round in the tournament.

Junior center Tajama Abraham leads GW with 19.5 points and 9.4 rebounds a game. Junior forward Lisa Cermignano chips in with 13.4 ppg and freshman Mandisa Turner adds 6.8 ppg.

Junior guard Colleen McCrea runs the point where she averages 6.5 assists a game while senior guard Myriah Longergan adds scoring punch at an 11.9 ppg clip.

But if what you don’t know can’t hurt you, then the Black Bears have little to fear.

On Wednesday, only two days before Maine meets GW in University Hall Arena, two of the Bears’ veteran starters didn’t seem to know how consistently well the Colonials have performed in recent years.

“Some of us have seen them play a few times,” UMaine junior Stacey Porrini said when asked if she knew of GW’s past success. “I saw their conference championship game on TV. They played UMass twice, but I really don’t know too much.”

Senior captain Steph Guidi also seemed well-versed only on GW’s success this year as the second straight Atlantic 10 Conference champion.

“They’re a pretty respectable team,” Guidi said. “They won the Atlantic 10, that’s respectable. They’ve beaten UMass twice, which is good.”

However, while the Bears may not know that GW was ranked 18th in The Associated Press poll at the end of the regular season last year and 16th at the end of the ’92 season, what will serve UMaine well is that the Colonials’ 25-6 season this year wasn’t enough to earn GW a Top 25 ranking.

Then again, the fact that the Colonials enter their Friday matchup at 6 p.m. with the Bears one win shy of tying the school record of 26 wins in a season won’t help.


Have feedback? Want to know more? Send us ideas for follow-up stories.

comments for this post are closed

You may also like