With five minutes remaining and her team trailing DePaul by 31 points, George Washington center Ugo Oha grabbed the ball during a stop in play, lifted it high with both hands and whipped it into a section of empty seats.
It was the 6-foot-4-inch center’s only uncontested shot of the second half Saturday.
With DePaul’s defense smothering Oha and star guard Cathy Joens, the Blue Demons romped to an 83-46 victory in the first round of the NCAA Midwest regional. The victory was gratifying for the ninth-seeded Blue Demons not only because it moves them into a second-round showdown Monday with No. 1-seeded Tennessee, but also because it erases more than a month of heartache.
DePaul (23-6), led by Charlene Smith’s 24 points, hadn’t won since Feb. 15 against Memphis.
“We really teach and preach strength up the middle–head, heart and guts,” Demons coach Doug Bruno said.
“And never has our strength up the middle been more tested than in the last five weeks. So to come out and resurrect the ability to play the way we played in the early part of the season was absolutely huge.”
Statistically, the Blue Demons actually played better Saturday than they had all season–at least defensively. The No. 8-seeded Colonials’ 31.5-percent field-goal shooting was worse than any DePaul opponent and it was one of several marks of futility for the Colonials.
George Washington (22-8) posted its worst shooting effort of the seasonand committed 24 turnovers–their second-worst performance.
“I was embarrassed today,” coach Joe McKeown said. “I’ll be the first to say that. I was embarrassed.”
Though the Demons delivered a complete defensive effort, the play of junior guard Jenni Dant and sophomore center Khara Smith stood out because they drew the toughest assignments.
After allowing Oha to score on four of her first six shots from the field, Smith forced her to miss six of her final seven.
“I just felt like I really needed to step up my game,” said Smith, who also contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds. “In the first half, it wasn’t like my defense was horrible, but she still had 13 points. I really needed her to get her off the block so she didn’t have easy looks at the basket.”
Dant was equally impressive. She shadowed Joens at every turn, turning the Atlantic 10 Conference’s co-player of the year into a non-factor.
Perhaps the only shortcoming in DePaul’s effort was its 3-for-16 mark on three-pointers against the Colonials’ zone defense. But once the Demons got their transition game going in the second half, they hardly needed long-range shots.
