Photo credit: Greg Fiume
By Liam O’Murchu (@Liam_0__)
Men’s basketball’s losing streak moved to eight games with a 90-74 home loss to Richmond on Saturday afternoon.
The Revolutionaries (14-11, 3-9 A10) let up over 50 points in the first half for the second game in a row and couldn’t capitalize on senior guard James Bishop IV’s eleventh 20+ point game of the year. The Spiders (18-7, 10-2 A10) dazzled offensively behind 19 points, seven assists, and five rebounds from senior center Neal Quinn.
“We had what was a good plan at their place and was pretty successful for a couple of teams.” GW head coach Chris Caputo said about the defense. “So we tried that and [Quinn] made us pay for it, which then we had to adjust to. But it’s also a little bit about us too in terms of our stability to have people who make people feel us.”
Richmond wasted no time getting started, knocking down their first five shots, four of which came from Quinn, who had eight points at the opening media timeout. The Spiders were borderline automatic offensively, shredding GW’s defense even as their leading scorer, graduate guard Jordan King, was relatively quiet.
GW redshirt sophomore wing Max Edwards came off the bench for just the second time this year and made his presence felt soon after entering at the 13:37 mark. Last year’s A10 Rookie of the Year had eight points and two three pointers within his first three minutes on the floor but his team still trailed by multiple possessions.
After taking a punch from the Revs, Richmond roared back in the last part of the first half. Once Quinn finally missed a shot with 1:12 left in the half, the Spiders got the offensive rebound and knocked down a three pointer. This was illustrative of their success in a first half where the Spiders made 23 shots on 30 attempts and scored 52 points, pushing the lead to 17 right before the break. Quinn and senior guard Dji Bailey combined for 26 points on 13-for-14 shooting, including a poster dunk from Bailey on Edwards.
“If you individually look at the guys, we have freshman defenders and we have guys who historically are not great defenders. And that’s just the reality of it.” Caputo said.
“Can we put 40 minutes together defensively right now at this moment? I’m hoping, but I understand why not at this point.”
The Spiders imposed their will on the glass, out rebounding the Revolutionaries 14-5 on the defensive end in the first half. Edwards led the team with 14 points and was clearly energized by his omission from the starting lineup.
“A lot of decisions I make don’t work.” Caputo said. “I guess this one worked today because he played well coming off the bench.”
Coming out of halftime, the Revs mixed their defense up, going to what Caputo described as a “funky zone” which disrupted the Spiders and allowed GW to outscore them 12-5 in the first five minutes of the second half. By the first media timeout of the second stanza, Richmond led just 57-49.
Bishop had his best three point shooting game of the season, going 5-for-9 from beyond the arc and pairing that with four assists while playing all 40 minutes. The Baltimore, Maryland native has struggled throughout this GW losing streak but his performance on Saturday was a step in the right direction as the Revs try to get their season back on track.
But throughout the second half, the Spiders did enough to keep GW at bay. The closest the Revs got was four points, at the 9:31 mark, and Richmond quickly got the lead back to nine a minute later. The Spiders took a 10-2 run into the penultimate media timeout of the day and led 78-63 with 5:01 remaining.
Although the result was out of reach, the Revs kept it interesting in the final minutes with some trapping and trailed by just 11 with 1:11 to play. Richmond excelled on the offensive end and shot 56.3% in the game as a whole. After the first half was dominated by Quinn, King stepped up in the second half, scoring 17 of his 24 points after halftime.
GW freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson stood out despite the losing effort, setting a career high in points with 15 and going a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc in his third start of the season. Hutchinson has established himself as a key part of the rotation in recent games and has made an impact on both ends of the floor, disrupting opposing guards on defense and hitting timely three pointers offensively.
“It’s definitely a learning experience.” Hutchinson said. “A lot of freshmen in the country aren’t able to be in my position, so I’m just trying to learn from guys like JB who are still going out there with their heads up and still playing.”
Missing from action for the Revolutionaries was redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson, who’s been dealing with discomfort in the same hip where he had a tumor that kept him off the court for two years. Johnson, who’s averaging 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.3 made three pointers per game was a meaningful absence, and Caputo said the Oakton, Virginia native likely shouldn’t have even played on Tuesday in the loss to George Mason.
But GW welcomed back redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr, who missed Tuesday’s game with a groin injury. However, Buchanan was clearly not at 100% health and could be seen holding his groin throughout the game. Caputo said he struggled sitting down due to his injury but the team figured he could play because he practiced a bit on Friday.
“He’s really trying.” Caputo said. “He’s 19 years old. He’s really trying to be a leader. And he’s a real great competitor. And I appreciate that from him, but we’re never going to put him in harm’s way.”
This is GW’s first eight game losing streak since 2009, when they lost 11 straight in Karl Hobbs’ final year. As frustrating as this stretch has been, the effort was better against Richmond than it had been in recent games. There are clearly frustrations, especially for a young team, but the Revs still have six conference games to turn the tide before they go to Brooklyn for the conference tournament.
“Everybody here is completely aligned in the vision of what we need to do to get this place to be one of the programs that’s at the very top of the league.” Caputo said. “But we don’t do that by wishing. If we just go to bed and wish it at night, that shit ain’t gonna work. We actually have to do things to do it and we are in the process of doing things.”
Next up for the Revolutionaries is a trip to west Philadelphia for a matchup with a St. Joe’s team coming off losses to Loyola Chicago and Duquesne. Tip-off is at 7 PM on Wednesday and the game can be streamed on ESPN+ and WRGW.
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