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Home > SECWB News & More! > SEC Teams > Auburn > Tigers Go Dancing with George Washington
Tigers Go Dancing with George Washington
by Marilyn McManus, SECWB.com
Posted: March 20th, 2008 @ 11:47pm
The Auburn Tigers women’s basketball team will travel to Palo Alto, CA, to face the George Washington Colonials in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, March 22. This is the Tigers’ first trip to the tournament since 2004 and their first time with head coach Nell Fortner. Fortner has been to the tournament nine times, but this is only her second appearance as a head coach. Fortner is in her fourth season on the Plains, with a 51-41 record. She has previously served as a head coach for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, the USA National Team and Purdue University, in addition to assistant positions with Stephen F. Austin, Louisiana Tech and the USA National Team–in addition to working as a Studio Analyst with ESPN Sports.
The Tigers are led by DeWanna Bonner, the 6-4 all-everything junior guard. Bonner averages 18.5 points per game, 10.2 rebounds per game and is second on the team with both steals (57) and blocked shots (36). She also has 64 assists for the season. Bonner can do it all. She plays inside, steps outside to shoot the 3 (though not that well at .273), leads the team in rebounding and plays a bit of point guard, as needed. It is needed more often, since junior point guard Whitney Boddie was declared academically ineligible after 11 games and Bonner and Tamela McCorvey have alternated those duties with freshman point guard Alli Smalley. Bonner does it all, but she can’t do it all by herself.
Bonner is assisted by Sherell Hobbs (13.2 ppg and 5.6 rpg) and Smalley (10.7 ppg and 2.8 assists per game). McCorvey, Jordan Greenleaf, Trevesha Jackson and freshman center Cassie Moore also contribute significant minutes.
The Tigers and Colonials have already met, this season. On January 3, the Colonials came to Auburn and stole the show when GW’s Lisa Steele hit a 3-point shot with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game to win it 68-66. The Tigers contributed to their own demise, by hitting only 64% of their free throws in the game, missing a total of 10 free throws. At the same time, the Tigers were adjusting to the absence of bruising center KeKe Carrier, who was declared academically ineligible for the season, and Boddie, with similar problems.
Colonials’ head coach Joe McKeown is in his 19th season at George Washington and has just signed an extension to work through the 2014 season. He surpassed 500 career victories this season and has had 18 20-win seasons in his career.
The George Washington Colonials come into the game with a 25-6 record and a #13/12 national ranking. They are 2-2 on neutral courts, so far this season. The Colonials have 4 players averaging double-digit scoring: Jessica Adair (15.3 ppg), Kimberly Beck (13.3 ppg), Sarah-Jo Lawrence (12.9) and Antelia Parrish(10.6 ppg). Parrish and Whitney Allen lead the team in rebounding with 6.7 and 6.4 per game, respectively. Adair also chips in 5.9 rebounds per game. This is a veteran team that usually starts 3 seniors and 2 junior players. Parrish and Beck are the 3-point threats, both shooting better than 38% from beyond the arc. Lisa Steele is also pretty good from that range, as the Tigers learned in the first game, though she averages only 9 minutes per game and has attempted only 34 3-pointers, this season. (She has hit 12 of those.)
The winner of the Auburn match-up with George Washington will advance to play either # 3 seeded California or # 14 seeded San Diego in the second round, on Monday.
The game will be televised on ESPN2 and the ESPN Family of Networks, beginning at 1 pm Central Time.
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