By Khush Wadhwa
For the first time this season, the George Washington Revolutionaries dropped a second straight game in an away loss to the George Mason Patriots on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
After falling to Davidson College at home, the Revolutionaries faced intense pressure to preserve their winning A-10 record. The Patriots were hungry for a challenge, holding a 17-1 overall record and a perfect record in conference play. Prior to the game, the Revs carried a higher KenPom ranking than the Patriots, sitting at 70th place in the national ranking system.
GW head coach Chris Caputo made a new decision to simultaneously start centers Luke Hunger and Rafael Castro in an effort to outsize a guard-heavy George Mason lineup. Caputo showed the double-center look intermittently throughout the game.
“We did that last year to great success defensively,” Caputo said about the lineup change.
GW opened play on a 6-0 run powered by quick layups and a Garret Johnson steal. Johnson would add the game’s first three-pointer to bring the score to 9-4 early. Castro and Hunger split screening and offensive rebound responsibilities, allowing the Revs to move the ball freely along the three-point line and generate second-chance opportunities early on.
The Revs also dominated the defensive glass early, holding George Mason without an offensive rebound for the first eight and a half minutes of play. George Mason’s guards struggled handling the ball, committing seven turnovers in the first half and resulting in 12 points for the Revs.
However, the Patriots turned the tide with a 6-0 run in under a minute to bring them within a point of the Revs. The Patriots took their first lead after a Johnson turnover which Mason guard Fatt Hill quickly converted for a 23-22 lead. Towards the end of the half, GW’s offensive output sputtered, missing six straight to go into the half down eight points. Most of those shots were layups and short two-pointers, a typical strong point for the Revs.
“We didn’t capitalize quite enough because of those missed layups,” Caputo said.
Despite a rocky start to the second half, the Revs exploded in a 12-2 run to tie the game at 45. Both teams tightened their defenses with the game tied at 50 and just ten minutes left to play. Junior guard Trey Autry, Christian Jones, and Johnson rose to the mantle in the second half with a combined 20 points.
The Revs and Patriots traded the lead frequently in the final five minutes, with George Mason leading by three with 30 seconds left to play. A quick Castro dunk cut the Revs deficit to just one point with 20 seconds remaining. Caputo opted to run a full-court press and foul quickly. Patriots center Riley Allensprach nailed both free throws to bring the Mason lead back to three.
After using both of their remaining timeouts, GW forward Tyrone Marshall Jr. prepared to make an inbounds pass from the sideline to tie the game. But instead, confusion on the court caused him to airmail the ball out of bounds. GMU guard Kory Mincy then iced the game with a quick layup, sealing a 69-64 victory for the Patriots. Caputo later explained that the play called for Marshall Jr. to execute was one they had practiced, but not with the personnel on the court at the time.
“That’s on us. We could have been a little bit more specific there,” Caputo said.
Following the game, Caputo remarked that he was disappointed by the difference between GW’s performance against George Mason when compared with their loss to Davidson, where they struggled defensively and from beyond the arc.
“I didn’t think we played with the same type of gusto as we did today,” Caputo said. “And had we done that on Wednesday, we would have been in a better place. But I think this is all you can ask for in terms of effort.”
The Revs will return to the Smith Center on Saturday at 3 p.m. to face off against Richmond in another nationally-televised A-10 contest. Live broadcast coverage will be available through WRGW.
