Photo credit: GW men’s basketball
By Abe Rothstein (@RothsteinAbe)
For the George Washington men’s basketball team, overtime is now the new normal. Faced off against Davidson, whose fans invaded the Smith Center and won in their last meeting in Foggy Bottom, those in attendance were given a treat.
From the opening tip, the Revolutionaries (13-3, 2-1 A10) looked to shake out of their cold spells to start games. Previously falling behind nine points against Fordham, and multiple buckets to VCU, the Revs instead started out hot, taking an early 5-0 lead.
Davidson stormed back using the offensive glass. Within the first half, Davidson had triple the offensive rebounds of the Revs, and dominated in second chance points. Freshman forward Sean Logan pulled down seven rebounds with four of those being on the offensive glass. It looked like the Revs, who had been allowing offensive rebounds on over 40% of misses in conference play, would hurt themselves.
Following a layup from senior guard Connor Kochera, who added 14 points and five rebounds on the day, Davidson would grab a 30-22 lead. The Revolutionaries would not allow that lead to grow, cutting the lead to three following a make on one of two free throws from redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson, who uncharacteristically finished only 2-for-5 from the charity stripe but the Revs could not get a stop. Angelo Brizzi raced by the GW defense for a layup that would bring the Wildcats (10-6, 0-3 A10) lead up to five.
“I thought they were gonna come in here with a high level of urgency after losing two home games. And they certainly did,” said GW head coach Chris Caputo.
In the young conference season, the Revs stand as the number one offensive team in the A10 according to KenPom, and the 15th ranked defensive team. On the defensive side of the ball, GW needed to hone in on protecting from off ball screens, which Caputo noted is a Davidson staple.
“You gotta defend off ball screens… they’re excellent at it,” said Caputo. “In the ACC you know, when you play Carolina, you’re not just playing that style, you’re playing the people who invented that style. When you play Syracuse, you’re not just playing against the zone, you’re playing the guy who basically invented that zone. And you could go that way the ACC for Virginia, people like that, well, for us, you’re not just playing offball, screening action, you’re playing the people who basically invented this. And so they’re elite at it. And so you have to be very, very good at a quick turnaround at things that are quite honestly not natural for how you usually defend.”
Once again, the second half was a different story for the Revs as they took back their lead with a Garrett Johnson layup to make it 48-47.
Freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson had his best game of his young career, finishing with 11 points along with crucial steals. The neophyte would electrify the Smith Center faithful with a fastbreak slam following a steal.
“A lot of my teammates are on me at practice,” said Hutchinson. “Telling me they want to see something like that so I took the opportunity to jump as high as I could.”
Though that lead would be brief as senior guard Grant Huffman would score 16 straight points to lead the way for the Wildcats.
When mentioning GW conference play, who else can we talk about, but senior guard James Bishop IV, who emerged to keep GW out of losing ways. The GW star continued to etch his name in the Revs history books, as he finished with 20 points to pair along with seven assists.
Once again, GW found themselves close at the end of a game, but after a three from freshman guard Bobby Durkin to give the Wildcats a 75-72 lead, followed by a Max Edwards missed three, it looked like all hope was gone for the Revs.
Hutchinson made his mark once again on the defensive end by stealing the ball from Durkin and immediately finding Johnson, GW had a chance to cut the lead to one, but free throw follies stood in the way for the Revs.
Connor Kochera missed a crucial free throw for Davidson giving GW the chance to tie the game with a Max Edwards layup to knot the game at 75. The ensuing possession would lead to a Huffman turnover and the Revs advancing the ball on an inbound play. With only 1.5 seconds remaining, the Revs had a chance to score another late basket to win the game.
Garrett Johnson inbounded and GW used Bishop as a decoy on the three point line, giving Max Edwards a chance to curl around the screen for a wide open lob attempt. Johnson threw a perfect pass to Edwards, but Max was unable to finish, giving GW another overtime battle.
“It would have been nice to go in but then again,” said Caputo. “If it goes in then we never run it again because it’s like on Twitter all everywhere.”
The coaching staff had hinted at plays they were saving for conference play, and that certainly was one of them.
“We ran it in one of our scrimmages before the season so we had confidence in executing it,” said Garrett Johnson, who finished with a career high 23 points. I know Max was pissed at himself for not finishing that, but we knew when we got to overtime, we were going to win the game”
That confidence surely came with experience as the Revs relied on redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. on the inside (16 PTS, 8 REB, 5 AST) and a Garrett Johnson three to give the Revs a lead that they would not relinquish as they would win 83-79.
GW moves to 7-1 in overtime in the Caputo era.
“These teams are gonna be good. These guys know what they’re doing. They’re gonna fill the roster with good players, they’re gonna coach them well,” said Caputo. “So this is just gonna be what it’s like every night, and you got to get yourself emotionally ready for that? Every day. So I take a nap before the games.”
GW will have a major matchup at home against George Mason on Monday, January 15th at 2 PM. That game can be streamed on ESPN+ and WRGW.
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