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Lady Muskies Stun No. 7 Georgia
By
Jay Skeldon,
1/6/2008
 | Xavier's Ta'Shai Phillips scores over Georgia's All-American forward Tasha Humphrey.
[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens | | |  | XU guard Alesia Barringer dribbles around a Georgia defender.
[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens | | |  | Maureen Hester and April Phillips dive to the ground to tie up a loose ball.
[enlarge] Photo by Bob Stevens | | |
The Xavier women's basketball team knew Sunday afternoon's contest against No. 7 Georgia would not be easy. But Xavier put together two solid halves and stuck to a well-executed game plan, as X knocked off the previously undefeated Lady Bulldogs, 65-55. The Muskies worked the ball into the interior and it paid off. XU was led by its inside towers, Amber Harris and Ta'Shia Phillips, who finished with 19 and 16 points, respectively.
The victory marks the highest ranked opponent Xavier has ever beaten at home. "This is a great team win for us," said XU head coach Kevin McGuff. "Georgia is an excellent team... I'm just really proud of our team to be able to beat Georgia." The win rounds out the Musketeers' non-conference schedule, and moves the team to 10-5 overall, while UGA drops to 13-1.
Xavier combined a balanced interior and perimeter effort on the offensive end. As a team, the Musketeers shot a smoking 52.9% from the field including 37.5% from behind the 3-point line. Xavier's Jerri Taylor and Tudy Reed accounted for four of the Muskies' six 3-pointers, knocking in two apiece.
"They have excellent three-point shooters coming into the game," said Andy Landers, the Bulldogs' Hall of Fame coach. "One shoots at 40, one shoots at 50. It doesn't get any better than that for two wings. Then you have a 60% shooter and a 50% shooter inside, they always shoot it well. Tonight they played to those people."
Xavier started with Harris recording the first basket of the game. The game was quickly tied at two by Georgia's preseason All-American, Tasha Humphrey, as she scored in the lane. The contest would teeter back and forth with five ties and two score changes. With the score tied at 16 with 7:40 left, Xavier closed the first half on a 13-5 run to lead 29-21 at intermission.
"They (Xavier) got good looks on the offensive end," said Humphrey, who led all scorers with 24 points and six rebounds in 39 minutes. "Playing at home, they got fired up and played behind their crowd."
The Lady Muskies opened the second half on a 14-5 run, capped by a Jerri Taylor 3-pointer, to move the score to 43-26 with 14:47 left. The 17-point lead, which occurred two additional times, was the Musketeers largest of the game. UGA instituted a full-court 2-2-1 trapping press to claw back into the game. Two free throws by Humphrey pulled Georgia within twelve points at 50-38 with 10:20 left.
Xavier did not cower to the pressure, though. It responded by getting the ball inside to Phillips who scored six points over the next three minutes of action. X played solid defense and took care of the basketball to hold on for the monumental win.
"This is the first time this team has lost a game this year," Humphrey said after the game. "I think we just got into too big of a hole and couldn't come back."
The hot shooting and interior post feeds opened the offense, allowing the Musketeers to score inside. And, score inside they did. XU dominated in the paint, scoring 36 points compared to just 10 by the Lady Bulldogs. It was clear that working the ball inside was core to Xavier's strategy. McGuff indicated that, despite facing two talented forwards -- Tasha Humphrey (16.2 ppg) and Angel Robinson (11.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg) -- he thought the game was a good matchup for Xavier.
"We had been working on the inside out all week and coach told us go in and finish hard and do what we had to do to get the ball in. We had a lot of great passes from the outside and some that were inside to lower post -- it was just exactly what we had been working on," said Ta'Shia Phillips.
The Musketeers are now 6-1 when scoring 30 or more points in the paint. In addition, Xavier is a perfect 7-0 when outscoring its opponent by at least 10 points inside the lane.
"From my perspective, any time we broke down, the ball always ended up in the paint except maybe one or two times...But you know that's where they want the ball to go," added Landers.
Harris and Phillips also pulled in four and six rebounds, respectively. As a team, Lady Musketeers outrebounded Georgia, 43-26, on the glass. April Phillips, a recently eligible transfer from Georgia Tech, pulled in a game-high 10 rebounds and added eight points. She was also extremely instrumental in the first half for the Muskies as they played most of the half without Ta'Shia Phillips, who was limited with foul trouble.
Xavier's Tudy Reed, another transfer (Rutgers) who became eligible on December 28, also added eight points and three assists in 25 minutes of action. X is now 4-1 since the duo became eligible.
"The difference in Xavier is those two kids (Phillips and Reed) that became eligible in December," said Georgia's coach.
McGuff concurred indicating that Phillips and Reed provided "a great lift." He added "It will be exciting to see them develop chemistry [with the team] with them in there."
More so than anything, McGuff seemed pleased with the all around team effort and buy-in to the game plan. Unlike previous games which Xavier let slip away this season, including Kansas on Friday night, McGuff alluded to the consistency throughout the game as a key. "Our execution and concentration was much better than it was in past games."
"I hope it can show our players how good we can be if we concentrate and execute," he continued.
Xavier will need that concentration and execution as it begins Atlantic 10 action with a tough battle on the road against George Washington. The Colonials are ranked No. 20 and boast an 11-3 record. The Lady Musketeers will try to bottle their effort and energy as it looks to defend its A-10 crown.
"It (the win) gives us energy on the next couple games coming up. To win a game that big out of conference and then going into conference knowing that we have confidence that makes it a little bit easier to go in and play in the Atlantic 10," said Phillips.
Tipoff against GW is set for 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 13 at the Smith Center in Washington D.C.
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