Photo credit: Mitchell Layton
By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Men’s basketball’s losing streak moved to five games on Tuesday night as they fell 88-65 to Rhode Island thanks to a disastrous second half.
The Revolutionaries (14-8, 3-6 A10) held a comfortable lead for much of the first half before falling behind early in the second half and not finding a way to come back. The Rams (11-12, 5-5 A10) got a career high 30 points from junior guard Zek Montgomery and scored 53 points in the second half to snap a four game losing streak to GW.
“It was men against boys in the second half.” GW head coach Chris Caputo said. “They put the ball in the paint over and over again, which is a little bit of a theme now for us. We played pretty well in the first half, I thought actually very well. But we had stretches where we kind of played the score and not the game and usually bad things happen then.”
Both teams were missing key players, with GW’s redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson and URI’s junior forward David Green not suiting up due to illness. Also missing for the Rams was sophomore guard (and All-Name Team member) Always Wright.
The Buff & Blue came out firing and built a 7-0 lead in the first 90 seconds thanks to five points from redshirt sophomore wing Max Edwards, who was one of the few bright spots in the loss. After looking lost for stretches of the last few games, Edwards played more within the flow of the offense and shot 7-for-15 from the field, finishing with 18 points and six rebounds.
The Revs’ lead climbed to 15-5 moments after the first media timeout thanks to two corner threes. Rhody head coach Archie Miller quickly called a timeout to calm his team down just 41 seconds after they’d convened before. Coming out of the timeout, URI went on a 7-0 run to get within a possession but GW kept them at arms length thanks to balanced scoring. Everyone who’d touched the floor by the second media timeout had scored for the Revs except for graduate center Babatunde Akingbola and GW led 22-14.
GW’s scoring was coming in spurts and their lack of consistency on the offensive end allowed the Rams to stay within striking distance throughout the half. By halftime GW’s lead was down to 37-35 and they had only taken four free throws.
Despite a poor end to the half that allowed the Rams to close the gap from seven to two in the final 3:30, the Revs remained in control of their own destiny. But after the break the narrative changed.
Rhode Island started the half on a 10-2 run, taking their first lead with 17:58 remaining in the game. From there they wouldn’t look back, using a 16-0 advantage in second half points off turnovers and a 32-18 advantage in second half points in the paint to cruise to victory.
“I wish I knew [the problem]. I would try to stop it.” Caputo said about his team’s recent second half woes. “Some of that can be attributed to being a little bit younger, certainly we’ve got to understand that. But we can be better. We have to be better going forward in those spots.”
The Revs struggled mightily from three point range throughout the night, but their struggles were amplified in the second half. After starting off 3-for-5 from beyond the arc, the Revolutionaries shot a measly 2-for-24 for the rest of the game, including 0-for-12 in the second half.
“If we can’t make shots at this rate with the makeup of our offense, it’s going to be difficult and put a lot of pressure on us defensively.” Caputo said.
But it wasn’t just the shooting from deep. Despite shooting above 40% from the field for the first time in the five games, the Revs made just 10 of 30 shots in the second half. The offense looked stagnant and one-dimensional on many possessions. One of the only bright spots was redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr, who had 23 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal on 9-for-13 shooting from the floor. Buchanan displayed his ability to get to the rim and finish through contact along with being a playmaker for his teammates and has shown why he is the favorite to win Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year.
By the under-8 media timeout, Rhode Island had built a double digit lead and looked in control while GW’s offense continued to look listless and their defense overmatched. Particularly disappointing was graduate guard James Bishop, who has shot 26% from the field the last four games, including a 4-for-12 showing on Tuesday which amounted to nine points. Bishop has been critical to GW’s success over the past few years and his lackluster performances in recent games has correlated with the Revs being on the wrong side of results. As someone who is such an important leader on the team, he needs to turn it around before it is too late.
Bishop and Akingbola both found themselves in foul trouble with four fouls before the penultimate media timeout, hampering their effectiveness and forcing Caputo into managing their minutes. Akingbola’s replacement, graduate forward Antoine Smith Jr, struggled to slow down Rhode Island’s attacks to the basket and picked up three fouls in less than two minutes.
URI also dominated on the glass, out rebounding the Revs 42-31 overall and 29-19 on the defensive boards. To make matters worse for GW, they struggled from the free throw line as well. Coming into the game, Rhode Island had the fifth best opponent free throw percentage in the nation at 65.3%. The Revs didn’t even reach that mark, hitting just 10 of 19 (52.6%) shots from the charity stripe and falling victim to the distraction of a loud whistle from a Rhody fan right as they released every free throw.
Fans began to file out with 3:30 remaining in the game, demonstrating just how disastrous of a performance it was from a team that was looking to bounce back after their toughest stretch of games thus far.
Although half of conference play remains, this string of results is very worrying for a young GW team. After a promising start to conference play that included a road win over VCU and a home victory over George Mason, the Revs have looked like a different team since classes started. This was the first game they didn’t allow a team to go nuclear from three point range since that Mason game but it was canceled out by Rhody’s dominance down low. Offensively this team seems like they’ve forgotten how to shoot three pointers and the only thing that’s been consistently working recently is getting the ball to Buchanan and moving out of the way.
“Everything’s on the table to tinker with.” Caputo said. “But tonight, it was more about the ball being in the paint against us than I think it was the offense. Although I think when people are scoring on you like that there’s a little pressure that gets put on you offensively.”
“The message is ‘when you’re going through hell, keep going.’ There’s nothing you can do. Most people don’t care that you’re going through something. They have their own lives. And there’s some percentage of people that are happy that you’re going through stuff. So there’s nothing you can do other than come back to work, work to get better and keep fighting.”
The Revs will look to avoid their first six game losing streak since 2020 when they welcome Loyola Chicago to the Smith Center for the first time ever on Saturday. Tip off is at noon and the game can be streamed on ESPN+, Monumental Sports Network, and WRGW.
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