Atlantic 10 Conference Play Roundup: Bre Cavanaugh, Nicole Jorgensen keep grinding

Rounding up the exciting third week of conference play

Results
Rhode Island 49 – Saint Joseph’s 47
La Salle 62 – UMass 76
Davidson 76 – George Mason 69
Duquesne 41 – Dayton 54
St. Bonaventure 51 – Saint Louis 72
Richmond 50 – VCU 53
Duquesne 58 – Saint Joseph’s 51
George Washington 55 – Davidson 62
UMass 66 – Rhode Island 69
Saint Louis 47 – Dayton 48
St. Bonaventure 61 – La Salle 67
Fordham 66 – Mason 54

This week brought many close games for the conference, with just four contests decided by double digits, conference play is starting to heat up.

Richmond was led by senior Jaide Hinds-Clarke led the Spiders with 19 points on 8-11 shooting in their close loss to VCU. In this close league, there can be no such thing as moral victories, but the young team showed fight in a three-point loss to one of the top team’s in the conference.

Rhode Island made a statement in their narrow three-point win against UMass, who was previously undefeated in conference play. The Rams were led by reigning Player of the Week Nicole Jorgensen who scored 21 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in just 27 minutes on the floor.

Duquesne’s struggle to get to the free-throw line continued early last week, as the team got to the line just eight times in the loss to Dayton. However, the Dukes went 19-26 from the line in a narrow win over Saint Joseph’s. In the win, Duquesne was led by redshirt senior Paige Cannon who had 19 points, including going 8-8 from the free-throw line.

GW fought to come back from a 15 point first half against Davidson, but the team’s comeback ultimately fell short. After scoring six points in the first and nine points in the second quarter the Colonials scored 40 points in the second half. Consistency will be key for GW as the team moves forward.

Bre Cavanaugh did her best to prove why she is deserving of the Player of the Year award after getting passed over for Mason’s Nicole Cardaño-Hillary, and she succeeded. She exploded for 29 points, five rebounds and two assists in Fordham’s win over Mason. Cavanaugh was an impressive 5-8 from behind the arc, making nearly half of the Rams 11 threes.

Davidson went 2-0 last week, narrowly beating Mason and GW. In both games, the Wildcats used a strong second quarter to create separation and build its lead. In both games four players scored in double figures, the Wildcats’ roster is full of scoring threats, something that will help them in the long run.

UMass snapped their 11 game win streak losing to Rhode Island 69-66 on Sunday afternoon, despite a game-high 26 points from Sam Breen. The Minutewomen were forced to play from behind after scoring just nine points in the opening quarter, something that ultimately hurt the team in the end.

St. Bonaventure went 0-2 last week, despite dominant performances by Emily Calabrese and Asianae Johnson. Against Saint Louis the duo combined for 27 of the Bonnies 51 points. Against La Salle the pair combined for 29 of the team’s 61 points. St. Bonaventure should look to get other players involved so that defenses do not just try to shut down these two dynamic scorers.

Saint Joseph’s finally scored more than 51 points for just the second time in conference play, however, it wasn’t enough to get them past Duquesne. In the team’s lone win in conference play the Hawks scored 67 points and made 29 field goals and they haven’t hit more than 19 shots in the four games since. This will need to change before Saint Joseph’s falls even further down the rankings.

VCU narrowly escaped Richmond on Friday, in part because of poor shooting from beyond the arc, going just 2-12. The Rams make the second-lowest percentage of threes in the conference, something that may hurt them against high powered offenses like Dayton and Duquesne.

Saint Louis’ comeback fell just short against Dayton, nearly overcoming a five-point third quarter. The Billikens will need to find consistency in order to succeed in the rest of conference play, and scoring five or eight points in a quarter is not the way to do it.

La Salle got their first win in conference play Sunday afternoon against the equally struggling St. Bonaventure. It took every one of Rookie of the Week Claire Jacobs’ 16 points to pull off the win.

Mason’s offensive woes continued this week, including shooting just 19.2 percent in the first half against Fordham. The team finished the game making 31.5 percent of their shots, which is not enough to win most games, including that one.

Dayton narrowly improved to 5-0 in conference play Sunday night after Erin Whalen went 1-2 from the line to put the Flyers ahead with 1.6 seconds left against Saint Louis. The Flyers not only won their seventh game but also held their fifth conference opponent to under 60 points, something that should not go unnoticed.

Standings
Dayton 5-0 (12-7)
Davidson 4-0 (12-6)
VCU 4-0 (9-8)
UMass 4-1 (14-4)
Fordham 3-1 (11-6)
Rhode Island 3-2 (10-7)
Duquesne 2-3 (12-6)
Saint Louis 2-3 (10-8)
GW 1-3 (7-10)
Saint Joseph’s 1-4 (7-10)
Mason 1-4 (7-11)
La Salle 1-4 (7-11)
St. Bonaventure 1-4 (4-14)
Richmond 0-4 (7-11)

Players of the Week
Player of the Week: Nicole Jorgensen (Rhode Island)

For the second week in a row Nicole Jorgensen was named Player of the Week, this week she averaged 22.5 points and 18 rebounds per game. On the season Jorgensen is averaging 16.8 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in 25.9 minutes per game.

Rookie of the Week: Claire Jacobs (La Salle)

Claire Jacobs set a program freshman record with 29 points against UMass. She averaged 22.5 points and 4.5 rebounds last week. Jacobs is averaging 12.3 points and 2.7 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game.

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