By Sunit Chakraborty
GW men’s basketball lost a close game against Richmond on Wednesday night. The last team these two teams faced off, the Revolutionaries made history, with former graduate guard Brendan Adams hitting a school record 9 three pointers, and Maximus Edwards tying a school record with 15 defensive rebounds. In that game, the Revolutionaries pulled out a thrilling double overtime 107-105 victory. This time, however, it was Richmond who made history. Their win on Wednesday led to the Spiders starting off their season 11-0 at home and 6-0 in the A10 for the first time in school history.
While the Revolutionaries (14-5, 3-3 A10) started the game off strong and led by one at the half, exceptional second half shooting from the Spiders (14-5, 6-0 A10) as well as an incredible performance from Richmond graduate guard Jordan King, who finished the game with 32 points on 11-for-19 shooting and 4-for-6 three point shooting, helped Richmond cement GW into a second half hole that the Revolutionaries were never able to fully come back from.
GW started off the game on an 11-4 run, with redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson hitting two three pointers and redshirt sophomore wing Max Edwards hitting a fast break layup score and a catch and shoot three to help GW branch out to a seven point lead with 16 minutes left in the first half. Johnson finished with a team-high 17 points for the night, while Edwards chipped in 11 points and four rebounds of his own.
The Revolutionaries extended their lead to as high as 12 points, when a Jacoi Hutchinson three pointer put them up 31-19 with just 3:24 left in the first half. As Richmond responded with a 14-3 run of their own to finish the half, the game started becoming the Jordan King show. King, the senior transfer guard from East Tennessee State, hit jumpshot after jumpshot, culminating in a three pointer at the buzzer to bring Richmond within one point at halftime, with a score of 34-33.
GW head coach Chris Caputo credited a lot of King’s success for the game to the rhythm that he was able to establish early on in the game, meaning that even when the Revolutionaries picked up their defensive focus on stopping King specifically, he was able to hit a plethora of tough shots throughout the game.
A big story heading into the second half was if GW would be able to keep up their hot three point shooting from beyond the arc, and whether they would be able to slow down King, who already had 17 points at halftime. They were not able to do either of these things successfully.
Senior guard James Bishop IV hit a floater to score the first points of the second half, which Richmond responded to by going on a 10-0 run, thanks to a three pointer by graduate forward Isaiah Bigelow, five straight points by Jordan King, and two free throws hit by senior center Neal Quinn. Bigelow and Quinn would finish with 20 and 11 points, respectively.
Richmond led 43-36 with 17:40 left in the half before an Edwards jumper ended their streak and put GW within five. It was here when the Spiders’ offense really got cooking, hitting an array of layups, jump shots, and three pointers that extended their lead to 13 points, 75-62. Richmond shot a red-hot 15-for-28 from the field and 8-for-14 from the three point line in the second half. In contrast, GW shot 15-for-39 and an icy cold 3-for-14 from the three point line in the second half.
One of the Revolutionaries’ lone bright spots on offense during this stretch was redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. Richmond’s defensive coverage gave him a lot of space for him to aggressively drive, and he capitalized on this, barreling to the basket and scoring close baskets or drawing free throws. Buchanan Jr finished the game with 13 points and nine rebounds.
The Revolutionaries fought hard and made a late run to get back into the game. They cut the lead to only four points with 1:14 left in the game off a Buchanan and-one layup, but ultimately it was not enough, and Spiders ended up pulling out a victory with a final score of 82-74.
The Revolutionaries lived by the three in the first half, and when their three pointers stopped falling in the second half, they were unable to keep up with Richmond’s high powered offense. Additionally, while James Bishop scored 15 points, he shot only 4-for-18 from the field, which also inhibited GW’s ability to compete. On the other side, Richmond generated good shot after good shot, and an electrifying performance from King helped propel their team to a victory.
After the game, Caputo said he’s not worried about Bishop’s ability to come back from a rough shooting night like this one, and that Bishop has a great attitude and positive mindset when it comes to approaching each and every game. He said his message to the team after the loss was that they fought hard to the very end in a very difficult road game, and now they will go back to friendlier territory at the Smith Center and hopefully grab a win to break their two game losing streak.
The Revolutionaries play La Salle at the Smith Center on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 6 pm and the game can be streamed on ESPN+ and WRGW.
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