By Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
After securing two immense home victories against Saint Louis and Richmond, the George Washington Revolutionaries hit another roadblock, giving up a late lead on the road against La Salle Saturday afternoon, falling 73-67.
Despite leading for over 33 minutes at the new John Glaser Arena, the Revs surrendered a back-breaking 19-7 run in the final seven minutes, dropping back into the bottom half of the standings in the Atlantic-10 Conference.
Offensive rebounds and second-chance points proved to be GW’s undoing, giving up 20 offensive rebounds on 37 missed shots and 21 second-chance points.
“The backboard obviously crushed us.” Coach Caputo said postgame.
The game’s pivotal moment came when Mac Etienne (who finished with a season-high six offensive rebounds) missed a pair of free throws with 4 and a half minutes left in a tie game. The ball, like many times Saturday afternoon, slipped through the hands of Darren Buchanan Jr. and Rafael Castro, and La Salle was able to grab their 18th offensive rebound. The Explorers then converted off that chance, drawing a foul and taking the lead.
Coach Caputo attributed some of the rebounding struggles to the smaller lineup GW was forced to play without freshmen Ty Bevins (illness) and Dayan Nessah (knee injury).
More careless mistakes from the Revolutionaries brought the Explorers back into it, including a costly foul from Trey Autry on a Deuce Jones step-back three-pointer for a four-point play that kickstarted La Salle’s 19-7 run to close out the contest.
“We’ve done a terrible job of fouling three-pointers in the last couple of weeks,” Caputo said. “We’re giving great effort, we’re flying around a little bit, you can get into some situations where you’re closing someone out when you’re out of control.”
The Revolutionaries have now given up at least 15 offensive rebounds in their last four road games in A-10 play. Moreover, GW has yet to win a game in conference play when allowing over 70 points.
Unlike their last road game against Massachusetts, the Revs came out of the gate hot, climbing out to an early 10-4 lead.
Gerald Drumgoole Jr. continued his hot shooting from his 19-point performance against Richmond, draining his first pair of three-pointers and finishing with 19 points again. GW fans will be hoping he can maintain his streaky shooting as the Revolutionaries face a daunting stretch of three games against three of the top six A-10 teams.
The murky area of Darren Buchanan Jr.’s bench role was evident again Saturday afternoon. In the first half, Buchanan Jr. played 14 minutes and scored six points off of some effective off-ball cuts. His three offensive rebounds also played a massive role in keeping GW ahead for most of the opening period. He seemed poised for his best performance since his 15-point, 8-rebound performance against George Mason, widely regarded as his top performance of the season.
However, Buchanan reverted to a quieter role in the second half, attempting just two shots in 14 minutes. He briefly left the game to have his right ankle taped but returned shortly after.
“It’s been a challenge, I think he’s handled it well, obviously our performance has been pretty good since Sean (Hansen) has been in the starting lineup,” Caputo said. “It’s an ongoing thing to look at – it’s a work in progress.”
Buchanan Jr. is averaging just over 7.5 points per game in A-10 play after averaging 15.5 points per game in the non-conference slate–an unimaginable drop-off for a player named to the Preseason All-Conference Second Team.
GW fans will hope Buchanan Jr. can rekindle that fire Wednesday when the Revolutionaries get a chance to avenge their double-overtime loss to their arch-rival George Mason.
Coach Fran Dunphy continues to have GW’s number, winning six of the last eight matchups since February 2020.
With the loss, the Revolutionaries find themselves once again fighting to avoid the “pillow fight” standings, with the conference tournament just over a month away. They currently sit in a five-team tie for eighth in the conference but face three of the top six times in the next three games.
In an A-10 conference marked by parity and no dominant front-runner so far this season, the Revolutionaries still have a challenging yet promising opportunity to climb back into the upper quadrant of the standings.
“You don’t take these jobs to be comfortable, this is not a league where two or three teams are investing in basketball and everybody else isn’t…everyone in the Atlantic-10 cares,” Caputo said. “If you want to be comfortable, this is not the league to be in.”
The Revs begin their gauntlet of the conference schedule Wednesday night against George Mason at 7 p.m. in the Smith Center. The game can be live-streamed on ESPN+. We will, as always, have live radio coverage as well as a write-up shortly thereafter.
