Photo credit: Mitchell Layton
By Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
On a brisk November Saturday afternoon, it was anything but so inside the Charles ‘Entertainment’ Smith Center, as GW defeated William & Mary 95-89. Senior guard James Bishop IV put his name back into the conversation for A10 Player of the Year (as if it ever left), finishing with 32 points, five rebounds, and five assists. The Revolutionaries (2-0) continue to fly through their out-of-conference schedule to start the season, showcasing the young roster’s remarkable success.
With Saturday’s win, GW improved to 10-1 under head coach Chris Caputo when they shoot at least 50% from the field and 12-1 when they score at least 80 points.
Reigning A10 Rookie of the Year, redshirt sophomore Maximus Edwards, notched his first double-double of the young season, scoring 15 points and securing 11 rebounds. Despite only scoring once in the second half, Edwards still served as a massive contributor to Saturday’s victory.
“I got some good shots up in the second half, it just wasn’t falling,” Edwards said. “We have a lot of guys that can score the ball, so if I’m not scoring, I’ll just have to do it on the defensive end and if the ball comes to me, I’ll have to make the right play on offense.”
From the opening tip, the Tribe (1-2) came out firing as their first 15 points came from beyond the arc, all coming from different players. The Tribe built a lead as large as nine in the first half.
Following a GW timeout at the 13:42 mark, down 17-11, Caputo made it a priority to attack the basket as their next 18 points came from either inside the paint or at the free throw line.
“I wanted to get the ball in the paint.” Caputo said. “I thought [William & Mary] did a good job against American of keeping them on the perimeter… the ball never really cracked the paint. Eventually, once we got it in there, I think the game was called well and we got fouled a lot.”
However, throughout the first half, it seemed as if the three-ball kept William & Mary in the game as they shot 8-for-21 from deep in the half.
“Just knowing who the shooters were, I think that was the biggest thing coming into the game. The coaches made that pretty vocal to us,” Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. said. “To start the game, we didn’t do a very good job of it, but later on, we started to close out harder, make them put the ball on the floor and make them uncomfortable so that let us get back into the game”.
GW then closed the half on an 11-2 run in the final five minutes, taking its first lead since 2-0 on a fastbreak layup from freshman guard Trey Autry off a steal from Edwards.
Coming out of halftime, the Revolutionaries began to play with a lot more physicality on defense, limiting the Tribe to only five second-chance points compared to 10 in the first half.
“I actually thought our defense was good at times, not to start, but eventually we settled in for the last 25 minutes or so. They made some very difficult shots.” Caputo said.
Although the stat sheet may not reflect it, a key defensive contributor today was freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson, who played lock-down on-ball defense and contested many of the Tribe’s three-point attempts. In the postgame press conference, Caputo compared Hutchinson’s defensive talents to that of some noteworthy defensive guards he’s coached in his career, such as Bruce Brown and Durand Scott at Miami, as well as Andre Cornelius at George Mason, calling all of them “Ed Reed-type defenders.”
Buchanan Jr. came alive off the bench late, scoring 11 of his 13 points in the second half.
“We want him to be like Draymond Green, a great defender, a playmaking frontal player.” Caputo said of Buchanan. “He’s gotten better shooting the ball along with his ability to play-make and play with force on both ends. He looks like a man but he’s the third youngest guy on the team.”
As GW was up 14 with three minutes to go, the Tribe started the fouling game and increased their pressure when GW was inbounding, forcing three Bishop turnovers and bringing it back to a two-possession game. This series of turnovers in the late stages showed how this GW squad is still gaining experience, as three freshmen were on the hardwood while the Revolutionaries saw their lead slip from twelve to four in less than a minute.
“It’s probably on me, we haven’t spent a ton of time on press break.” Caputo said. “We are a younger group of guys and we’ve got some inexperience there. I need to be a little bit more intentional about spending some time on press break. It just is what it is.”
With 38 seconds left, GW called a timeout on the inbound, allowing themselves to draw up another play to break the full-court press. From then on, the Revolutionaries would go a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line to close out the game and secure the win.
Without a doubt, today’s player of the game was Bishop, who came off a surprisingly quiet season opener Monday against Stonehill. After going 2-for-6 Monday night, Bishop tripled his shot attempts today, shooting a healthy 44% from the field. The Foggy Bottom legend, as usual, had ice in his veins from the free-throw line, making 15 of 16 attempts. Today’s performance from the Baltimore guard is in line with the excellence he’s displayed while at GW.
“The guy is just a great basketball player.” Caputo said. “He’s a great college basketball player. He’s an unselfish guy, he’s low-maintenance, he cares about his teammates, he cares about winning. He cares about all the right stuff. To me, he knows he has to be a winning player to leave a great legacy here and that’s what we’re working towards. But if and when we do that, he goes down, to me, as one of the great Baltimore basketball guards in the history of college basketball.”
The Revolutionaries will face Hofstra on Tuesday at 7 PM in the Smith Center, looking to go 3-0 to start their season. GW will look to avenge last year’s 85-80 loss to the Pride, in which Bishop put on a 44-point masterpiece. That game can be streamed on ESPN+ and WRGW.
Leave a Reply