Photo credit: Mitchell Layton
By Scott Greaney (@ScottGreaney_)
Men’s basketball earned a true team victory Tuesday evening as 10 players scored in their comfortable 88-73 win over Bowie State. Four players notched double figures in the contest, including freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson, who scored a career-high 12 points along with six rebounds and two assists. Graduate center Babatunde “Stretch” Akingbola notched double figures in scoring for the first time in his career, along with six rebounds in just over 15 minutes.
With Tuesday’s win, GW extends its unbeaten streak at home to seven games and improves to 12-1 under Head Coach Chris Caputo when the team shoots above 50% from the field.
Entering the game, the Revolutionaries (9-2) faced a familiar face in Bowie State head coach Darrell Brooks, who served as an assistant coach for GW from 2001-09. He helped coach three NCAA Tournament teams and two A-10 championships during his tenure.
Even with students, like me, cramming for final exams before Tuesday’s game, the George’s Army section of the Charles E. Smith Center was pretty packed for the first half, thanks in part to a pretty sick rope hat giveaway.
“I think the biggest shoutout goes to the students and the crowd that we have. They bring a lot of energy every game, so that really gets us going and helps us defend our home court,” Hutchinson said.
Prior to tip-off, Caputo reverted to the three-guard lineup we saw earlier in the season, including the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship, with freshman guard Trey Autry in the starting lineup and redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. coming off the bench. The starting group initially struggled against the Bowie State full-court press, giving up four turnovers in the first four minutes of the contest. The Bulldogs (4-6) led for the first six minutes of the game before GW began to take care of the ball and limit points off turnovers.
“It’s some combination of youthfulness, playing a little bit faster, encouraging them to pass; I think we move the ball very well,” GW head coach Chris Caputo said. “There are so many plays I think already this season where the ball has really popped around. With that sometimes comes some turnovers and we’ve gotta improve; we’re working to improve on it every day.”
Given this was a Division II opponent, Caputo looked to break out of the struggle by mixing many of the bench players into the rotation, bringing in not only Buchanan Jr. and Hutchinson, but also sophomore wing Benny Schröder, graduate forward Antoine Smith Jr., and freshman forward Zamoku “Zam” Weluche-Ume. This cycling of new players onto the court contributed to GW’s impressive 27-7 run, extending their lead to 18 by halftime.
“It’s hard to develop your bench when the starters are freshmen,” Caputo said. “So there’s a couple of other guys you want to try to give a great opportunity to, and you’ve gotta get to a place in each game that maybe you can get there. I was happy we were able to do that tonight and thought we had some good performances.”
GW returned to the court in the second half with a much cleaner start, only giving up one turnover in the first four minutes which allowed them to stretch their lead to 24 by the under-16 media timeout.
From then on, the Revolutionaries ran away with the game for most of the second half as the lead grew as high as 34. Everyone joined in on the scoring, marking Tuesday’s game as the second straight game in which 10 GW players scored in the contest.
“It’s a great feeling. Watching both in the game and on the bench, and looking at the excitement, I’m sure you guys can see when we’re watching it, we celebrate for each other,” Jacoi Hutchinson said. “We are all happy for each other, and we all want each other to be the best every game.”
GW seemed to take their foot off the gas pedal ever so slightly before subbing in the walk-ons as they gave up an 18-2 Bowie State run over the last six minutes of the game.
“It’s a strange lineup I had out there,” Caputo said. “I’m just basically trying to log minutes for guys and see if I can get some film on them to show them of themselves in games, not just practices.”
A standout factor from Tuesday’s game was the production from bench players like Schröder, Smith Jr., and Weluche-Ume, who scored 21 of GW’s 46 bench points.
Weluche-Ume posted a career-high eight points in a career-high 17 minutes, knocking down a pair of three-pointers in the contest. “It was a great moment,” Weluche-Ume said. “Even the guys who usually get more minutes, they were happy. They weren’t selfish or anything; they were happy for other guys to get minutes, get playing time. It’s just a great team atmosphere.”
Weluche-Ume, a freshman from London, England, further credited the coaching staff for his adjustment to college life in the U.S.
“I’m not gonna lie, it’s been great actually,” he said. “The coaching staff is really cool; I was really surprised how cool the coaching staff is. They made it really easy to adjust, like taking me to different places and stuff. GW, like DC as a whole, I’ve been saying this to everyone, but it kind of feels like London, so it’s been really awesome adjusting.”
Looking ahead, these next two games against Alcorn State and Maryland-Eastern Shore could serve as a prime opportunity for bench guys like Zam, Benny, and Antoine to get meaningful experience before the A-10 slate begins. Now it’s easy to overreact to a win against a Division II school, but this team’s ability to go 10-deep with conference play just around the corner is a promising sign.
The Revolutionaries will have more than a week off before their next game against Alcorn State next Thursday. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 pm and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.
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