By Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
On the warmest evening of the new year in Foggy Bottom, the George Washington Revolutionaries came away with a 75-66 victory over Richmond, powered by yet another strong second-half team performance. Rafael Castro continued to shine, finishing with 21 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
The victory marks the Revs’ second-straight win and now brings their record to 15-6 overall and 4-4 in conference play, pushing them into the top half of the Atlantic-10 standings and a five-way tie for fourth place.
GW entered Wednesday night coming off a strong but close win against Saint Louis after some late-game free-throw drama. Hoping to finish business against the Spiders this time after blowing a 13-point second-half lead on New Year’s Eve in Richmond, the Revs looked to build some momentum heading into their road matchup against La Salle.
With Richmond coming in on a 5-game losing streak and missing their top scorer DeLonnie Hunt, Coach Caputo and his squad looked well-suited for a sound conference win at home.
After a back-and-forth first half, GW went into the break up by just one, largely due to the 12 turnovers from the Revolutionaries. The Spiders also drained 8 three-pointers in the half–the same number Richmond had all game against GW in the first matchup.
As they’ve done throughout the season, the Revs returned to the court with more tenacity on the defensive side of the ball, intercepting Richmond’s errant skip passes and converting on the other end. Ranked top 20 nationally in steals per game as a team (9.6), six Revolutionaries tallied at least one steal in the contest.
Despite the defensive success in the second half, it was a two-possession game for much of the second half until the under-eight media timeout. However, GW thwarted any chances of last-minute heroics, securing the cover thanks to some free throws from Jacoi Hutchinson and a thunderous fastbreak dunk from Gerald Drumgoole Jr.
GW is now 4-1 in conference play when holding opponents under 70 points–the only loss coming in the first matchup against Richmond. Huge credit goes to assistant coaches Dwayne Lee and Lamont Franklin for completely transforming the team’s defensive identity this season.
Rafael Castro led the team once again in scoring with an amazing stat line: 21 points (7/9 FG), 16 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and a steal without a single foul. As Abe Rothstein noted, Castro is the first Revolutionary to finish with at least 21 points and 15 rebounds in a game since Arnaldo Toro in the 2019-2020 season. Coach Caputo and his staff truly found a gem in the Providence transfer from Dover, New Jersey, as Castro continues to amaze Foggy Bottom fans and assert himself as one of the top players–and big men–in the A-10.
On top of Castro’s continued dominance, the Revs got a much-needed strong shooting performance from Gerald Drumgoole Jr., who broke his 0-for-19 slump by knocking down 5 three-pointers en route to a 19-point showing, along with 7 rebounds.
Trey Autry added to his impressive sophomore season, setting a new career high with 18 points hitting 4 three-pointers along with 2 steals in a time-high 37 minutes.
Jacoi Hutchinson also delivered one of his best games since his 20-point performance against American, finishing with 9 points, 5 assists and 2 steals in 25 minutes as Christian Jones struggled with turnovers. Hutchinson has struggled to adjust to his new role off the bench, but having a battle-tested, experienced true point guard like him coming off the bench could pay dividends down the stretch this season.
With 10 games remaining in the conference schedule, the Revolutionaries are rolling and have themselves a tremendous opportunity to pick up another conference road win against La Salle, who lost to Fordham at home and have lost three of their last four games.
We will have our live radio coverage from the new John Glaser Arena Saturday afternoon starting at 2:30 p.m. Stay tuned!
