By: Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
Coming off a crucial two-game win streak against top 100 teams per KenPom in Dayton and Rhode Island, men’s basketball dropped their first home game Wednesday night to Duquesne 73-65. In an uphill fight most of the game, trailing as much as 15 in the second half, the Revs cut it back to a one-point game, but multiple spells of careless turnovers and missed opportunities down the stretch hindered them from regaining the lead.
The loss overshadowed the career performance of Rafael Castro, who dominated with 27 points and 13 rebounds.
“I just felt like my teammates were making the right play, feeding me and just taking advantage of that, getting to my spot when I could,” Castro said.
Christian Jones also had a career night with a career-high 7 steals along with a team-high 4 assists despite foul trouble.
The team’s struggles were especially disappointing in front of a strong student turnout at the Smith Center, as GW shot just 33% from the field in the first half and trailed for nearly 79% of the game.
With a week of rest coming into Wednesday’s matchup, the Revolutionaries aimed to take advantage of the extra time off to get their key players healthy, including Darren Buchanan Jr., who returned to the action off the bench after missing the last two games with an ankle injury. However, the Revs were once again without transfer guard Trey Moss, nursing an ankle injury.
As the Atlantic-10 Conference leader in steals per game averaging 9.2 steals per game coming in, GW unsurprisingly came out with strong intensity on defense, sending double-teams off Duquesne’s high ball screens, leading to deflections and steals. Christian Jones had 2 steals within the first two minutes and tallied 6 steals in the first half, already surpassing his career high by the break. However, the Revs couldn’t break out to much of a lead only scoring 7 points off 8 forced turnovers in the opening half.
“I thought we came out with a great edge in terms of the deflections and steals to the start the game” head coach Chris Caputo said. “I think we’ve got to speed people up with our defense which I thought we did at times.”
Wednesday’s matchup also marked the return of former Revolutionary, Maximus Edwards, who won Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year his freshman season in Foggy Bottom. Coming into the game, Edwards had largely struggled, shooting just over 19% from three-point range and averaging just 9.6 minutes since conference play started. However, the return to his former campus evidently lit a fire within the redshirt junior guard, as he finished with a season-high 22 points, tallying 16 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field in the opening half.
“We didn’t do a great job of guarding him and Max got going in transition and then made some shots,” Caputo said.
Once Edwards subbed in just before the under-12 media timeout, Duquesne pulled off a 9-0 run, six of those points coming from Edwards, that ended up giving the Dukes the lead for the rest of the contest.
Duquesne’s slow-tempo offense, ranked just 339th nationally per KenPom, clearly seemed to trouble the GW attack in the first half, as they only took three more field goal attempts than the Dukes in the first half. The Dukes also shot 50% from the field in the opening half, knocking down seven threes, and carrying a 13-point lead into the break.
Trailing by double digits at the break, the Revolutionaries needed to make adjustments, as they had most of the season to save their winning streak. Caputo and his staff made the call to switch from double-teaming off the high ball screen to just switching on all screens, on and off-ball. This switch sped up Duquesne’s offense and led to a pair of turnovers that cut the game back to a single-digit game.
Within the first five minutes of the second half, GW had brought the game back to a two-possession game, just down six with over 15 minutes to go. However, after Duquesne’s Jahsean Corbett hit a tightly-contested midrange jumper, the Revs turned the ball over on their next four possessions, which sucked the life out of the GW crowd in the Smith Center. And just like that the Duquesne lead had ballooned back up to 10 by the under-12 media timeout.
Despite the spell of turnovers, the GW defense was able to keep themselves in the contest by keeping the Dukes scoreless for over 4 minutes of game time throughout the middle of the second half. As is the case with most college basketball games, particularly conference games, it was going to take a GW run to take back the momentum and get the crowd back into it.
A pair of free throws from Darren Buchanan Jr., who had largely struggled in his return, kickstarted a 14-4 run from GW to cut it to a one-point game with five minutes remaining.
“We found a way to very effectively get the ball to our bigs in the middle, the way they were playing pick and rolls,” Caputo said. Caputo also said changing the screening angles contributed to the big run late, allowing the ball to get into the paint and then also kick out for threes.
Coming out of the Duquesne timeout at the five-minute mark, GW forced Duquesne’s third-straight miss and looked to take the lead. After skying for the rebound, Buchanan Jr. took the ball down the court, got to his right hand, but missed a contested almost hook shot going driving away from the basket. Even worse, Gerald Drumgoole Jr. missed the tip-in and was down on the court, giving Duquesne a 5-on-3 advantage, leading to a silencing three-pointer from Tre Dinkins, putting it back up to a two-possession game.
Castro continued to carry the Revolutionaries late to bring it back to a three-point game, despite struggling at the charity stripe in the late minutes.
“We’re in these conference games where these games are going to be close and we’ve got to execute in times like that,” Castro said. “It just didn’t fall today, but we’re going to be better.”
After a crucial goaltending call on a Jacoi Hutchinson layup was reversed to a clean block from Duquesne’s David Dixon, GW inbounded the ball with a chance to cut it to one again or tie the game with a three-pointer. Given that the defense had kept Duquesne scoreless for the past 2 and a half minutes, the Revs decided to go for the tie, rather than go for two and trust their defense to get another stop.
Following an offensive rebound from a Gerald Drumgoole missed corner three, GW called timeout with 58 seconds left and drew up an inbounds play to free Trey Autry for a three-ball off a wrap-around screen, but the ball was stripped away by David Dixon and interestingly decided to foul immediately despite it being a one-possession game with around 50 seconds remaining.
Caputo said the intention of the inbounds play was initially to find a scorer going towards the rim off the wrap-around screen, then found Autry open off the screen.
Caputo also agreed with the decision to foul with 46 seconds left.
“At that point, you’ve got to extend the game…you’re really playing against the clock.”
Once the foul game started, the time had simply run out for the Revs to salvage the game.
“We have to play a little better,” Caputo said. “We’ve got to not get our shot blocked quite as much, make one or two more threes, make one or two free throws, have one or two fewer turnovers in these games that wind up being so close.”
Wednesday’s loss has raised lingering questions amongst fans about how to best integrate Buchanan Jr.’s ball-dominant style back into the offense after the team found success with him sidelined due to injury. Meanwhile, players like Sean Hansen, Trey Autry, and Dayan Nessah have stepped up in expanded roles, showing promise with their smart passing and off-ball movement.
The road ahead does not get any easier for the Revs as they will not be back in the Smith Center for another week and a half, facing the brunt of A-10 conference play. Next up is a tough road matchup against close rival George Mason, who is coming off an impressive road victory against Dayton and has the third-best 2-point defense in the country per KenPom.
WRGW Sports will have live radio coverage from EagleBank Arena with tipoff starting at 12:30 p.m. and as always a write-up post-game.
