Photo credit: GW men’s basketball
Men’s Basketball sprinted to a blowout victory against Coppin State on Saturday night, winning by 31 points, 76-45. The win improved GW’s record to 8-2 and continued what is the best start since their 8-1 start in the 2015-16 season. The Revolutionaries’ 6-0 home record is also a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since that 15-16 season, where the team won their first nine games at the Smith Center.
The Revolutionaries came into the game coming off of an electric 79-77 record-breaking overtime win against Navy on Tuesday night. As a team, GW blocked 15 shots, which is the most in GW history, and graduate center Babatunde “Stretch” Akingbola recorded 11 of those blocks himself, breaking an individual school record. The game was tight throughout, and the outcome was never certain, with senior guard James Bishop’s eight straight points helping the Revolutionaries squeeze out a two point victory.
After over three days of rest, the Revolutionaries came into a loud Charles E. Smith center bouncing with energy from the start. Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr scored GW’s first four points to bring the score to 4-0, and the Revolutionaries leaped to a 9-4 lead after a three pointer from redshirt sophomore wing Maximus Edwards off a Buchanan Jr assist with 14:12 left in the first half. Edwards finished the game with 11 points and five rebounds.
Throughout the first half, the Revolutionaries offense moved with a sense of purpose. The ball zoomed from side to side while players sprinted and cut, where teammates continually found each other for open layups and threes. Bishop led the charge in facilitating, capped off by a hard drive and pocket pass to Akingbola for an and-one layup to put GW up 26-13 with 6:29 left in the first half. Bishop finished the game with a team-high six assists, while Akingbola finished with four points, seven rebounds, and an impressive five blocks.
The Revolutionaries finished the half leading 36-17. All eight GW players who played in the first half scored, and GW had eight more assists than the Eagles (1-10), leading in that category 9-1.
In the post game press conference, GW head coach Chris Caputo talked about how he approached keeping his team locked in as they came into this game, given that Coppin State came into this game with a 1-9 record, the lowest in the MEAC.
“I’ve been around this long enough that things like this could go very south for people,” Caputo said. “I told the team, you just really want to strive to be the best version of yourself regardless of the opponent.”
GW extended their lead significantly during the second half of the game, largely due to their “showtime” electrifying and fast paced offense, and aggressive defense, even resorting to a full court press midway through the second half. With just a bit over 17 minutes left in the game, Bishop stole the ball and dished out his fifth assist of the game to Buchanan Jr for a fast break dunk that put GW up 38-17. After a timeout by CSU, Akingbola blocked a dunk at the rim and found Bishop who dished out yet another assist, this time to Edwards for a layup.
Buchanan Jr, who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds on 6-for-8 shooting, found most of his success slashing for layups and dunks in the paint. After the game, he told the media, “I think we play fast in general. Our ability to get the ball off of the rim and just go. It’s good when we play that way.”
Buchanan Jr hit an and-one layup with 13:40 left in the game that put the Revolutionaries up by 16, 43-27. On the next offensive possession for GW, sophomore guard Benny Schröder hit another-and-one layup to put GW up 46-29 with 13:08 left in the game. Schröder finished the game with eight points, two rebounds, and two assists.
From the 12:14 mark to the 7:53 mark, the Revolutionaries hit three after three to extend their lead from 15 points to 28 points. It started with freshmen guards Jacoi Hutchinson and Trey Autry hitting a pair of threes, followed by a Autry slam dunk. Redshirt freshmen wing Garrett Johnson hit two free throws before freshman Zamoku Weluche-Ume hit another three, putting GW up 59-31.
While the Revolutionaries were getting buckets on offense, the Eagles could not buy a basket, especially from beyond the arc. They only hit one out of eight three pointers from beyond the arc in the second half, and finished shooting 2-for-22 from beyond the arc for the game, shooting an abysmal 9% from that region.
With 5:02 left in the game, Hutchinson stole the ball and threw it up high for an Autry alley-oop layup, putting GW up by 30 points and effectively ending the game. Hutchinson finished with six points and five assists while Autry finished with 13 points, eight rebounds, and three assists, shooting a healthy 5-for-10 from the field.
“Just my teammates getting me involved, keep continuing to put confidence in me every day in practice, in extra workouts, and definitely in the games.” Autry said about what contributed to his strong performance on Saturday. “Being able to find me guys like Darren always with their eyes open. You know as gifted as a scorer he is, that he’s able to look out for others is really just a great thing to play with. So I just know my teammates continue to put confidence in me and then always just the extra work always pays off.”
A pair of slam dunks by Schröder and graduate forward Antoine Smith Jr put GW up 75-45 with a minute left in the game. The Revolutionaires won the game with a final score of 76-45.
One sore spot of the game was turnovers- the Revolutionaries committed 17 turnovers compared to the Eagles’ 10. After the game, players and Coach Caputo alike both stressed the importance of taking care of the ball better in the future, but mentioned that these turnovers were often the result of good-intentioned passing and trying to find teammates for open shots. 10 different Revolutionaries players scored and the team as a whole recorded 20 assists.
“I’m a little bit concerned with the turnovers but I thought some of them, most of them, we were just trying to pass the ball and maybe making the wrong read or playing on two feet would have helped.” Caputo said. “But I think we keep this virtual assist number. We were at 34 the other night which is a good number of us. And 20 assists. I’m assuming we missed enough where we got up over the 30 number 32, 33 something like that. So I think I’m encouraged by the sharing of the ball. It’s one of the things about passing the ball a lot is you could turn the ball over a lot when you pass it. A good way to not turn it over is never pass, but it’s not really a good way to play basketball. We got to clean it up. That’s obvious but everything else is related to that.”
The Revolutionaires play their next game against Division 2 Bowie State at the Smith Center on Tuesday night. Tip off is slated for 7 pm and the game can be streamed on WRGW and ESPN+.
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