Men’s Basketball Routed by South Carolina in First Road Test of Season

By Matthew Brooks (@brooksie1219)

After a hot 6-1 start to the season and their excellent performance against South Carolina last season, most GW fans were hopeful for a competitive match on the road against the Gamecocks (7-0). But a rough defensive performance and some Revolutionaries (6-2) injuries led to a highly experienced South Carolina team taking care of business at home, with a final score of 89-67.

“I was impressed with South Carolina,” said GW head coach Chris Caputo postgame. “They did a good job getting a bunch of shooting on the floor and skill on the floor with their transfers, Stute, Cooper, and Mack.”

“A bunch of shooting” is certainly an accurate way to describe South Carolina’s performance. They made a program record 18 three-point shots on a 51.4% efficiency. They also shot 50% from the field. GW struggled to defend the paint or grab defensive rebounds, leading to 12 Gamecocks second-chance points, and 14 points off turnovers. 

GW’s defense also failed to force any South Carolina turnovers, with the Gamecocks only surrendering three the entire game, with two steals from freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson and one from graduate center Babatunde Akingbola. 

GW was dealing with three injuries limiting players after the Bahamas trip. Redshirt freshman wing Garrett Johnson, who only played 14 minutes, is dealing with a knee contusion. Sophomore wing Benny Schröder has an ankle issue that prevented him from playing at all, and redshirt sophomore guard Max Edwards was dealing with an undisclosed injury that held him from practicing leading up to Friday.

“We had a tough week of practice and preparation.” Caputo said concerning the injuries. “And that had some effect on us… coming into the game, there were some things we needed to clean up defensively. And quite honestly, we just didn’t get much of a chance to prepare in terms of the injuries that we dealt with this week.”

On offense, GW was not fantastic. They especially struggled in the first half, only scoring 32 points. Senior guard James Bishop IV was held to just two first-half points, and Edwards had none, going 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-3 from three. All in all their three top scorers, Bishop, Edwards, and Johnson were held to just two points on 1-for-14 from the field and 0-for-6 shooting from three.

There were bright spots in the offensive production. Redshirt freshman Darren Buchanan had 12 first-half points and finished with 18, and freshman guard Trey Autry, who’s been relatively quiet on offense thus far, stepped up and finished with 13 on 5-for-8 shooting and 3-for-6 from three. 10 of those points were in the first half, keeping them alive in a game in which they were struggling in many ways.

South Carolina also has the leg up on experience by a lot. While South Carolina ranks 15th in minutes played in previous seasons per KenPom, GW ranks near the bottom of college basketball at 240. 

“Of our eight rotational players right now that are playing a lot of minutes, Six of them are either freshmen or sophomores. And so we do have some experiences that we’re going to continue to work through… they have a lot of experience. We don’t have quite as much,” said Caputo.

The dagger from South Carolina came with 11:17 left in the game when graduate forward B.J. Mack hit a three to continue an 8-0 run, and force a GW timeout. That run extended to 11-0 and a 4:15 sequence without a GW bucket. A game that was an uphill battle, but still within reach, became a 20-point blowout, with South Carolina up 65-45.

Despite the tough loss, Caputo was optimistic about the road ahead for this team in December and beyond.

“We can compete, I think, in any game. I think we’ve just got to get better. Every practice is a good practice for us. We just didn’t get a chance to do it much this week, so we [have] a lot to work through. But I’m confident that we will. We’ve got a group that’s not healthy. We’ve had some great practices. So I’m excited about where we are…  I hope that we can quickly bounce back here physically and allow us to have a good defensive performance on Tuesday.”
GW’s next game is on Tuesday when they take on Navy in GW’s annual “Miracle on 22nd Street” game, which includes a pregame tailgate next to the Smith Center. That game will tip off at 7:00 PM and will be broadcast on ESPN+ and WRGW.