Game of the Day
La Salle Explorers 50, George Washington Colonials 90
Just as the scoreboard indicated, the Colonials absolutely demolished La Salle on Sunday afternoon. Shooting 29-50 (58.0%) from the floor, George Washington (20-7, 9-5 A-10) was firing on all cylinders. La Salle (6-19, 2-12 A-10) shot the ball poorly from the field as it went just 19-59 (32.2%). The Explorers also got outrebounded 20-41 by George Washington who ultimately steam-rolled them in almost every category. The only problem for GW on Sunday afternoon was taking care of the basketball. The Colonials had 19 giveaways on the day. Regardless, they had no trouble putting away the weaker Explorers.
George Washington’s impressive offensive performance was the product of a number of important players. Tyler Cavanaugh led the way for the Colonials, shooting 7-11 from the floor and putting up 22 points. Patricio Garino had a great game as well; he put up 19 points and pulled down 8 boards. Between Cavanaugh and Garino, the two knocked down all 7 of their combined three point attempts. The team went 14-20 (70.0%) from beyond the arc. Paul Jorgensen, despite only scoring 2 points on the night, had a game-high 7 assists. The Colonials performed well with a dominating win over La Salle, though a win like this doesn’t help GW all that much. After struggling the past couple weeks, the Colonials are beginning to find themselves on the wrong side of the bubble. They’ll play Richmond and VCU this upcoming week. If they don’t find a way to pull out some victories down the stretch, we may not see the Colonials in the NCAA Tournament this season.
La Salle came into this game with some momentum after upsetting the Bonnies earlier in the week, but that momentum was snatched from them by the dominating Colonials. Now with just 2 wins in conference play, it’s been a very frustrating season for La Salle. The Explorers were led by Jordan Price with 17 points, but there was no doubting the fact that their offense was not clicking on Sunday afternoon. The Explorers have upcoming home games against Fordham and George Mason this week. They’ll definitely have some good opportunities to grab a couple more wins before heading to Brooklyn for the A-10 Tournament.
Elsewhere in A-10 Action
George Mason Patriots 64, Massachusetts Minutemen 70
The Minutemen have quietly been gaining some momentum as of late, winning 3 of their last 4 including a home contest with George Mason on Sunday afternoon. Leading the way for UMass was Jabarie Hinds with 17 points. Trey Davis dropped 16 while Antwan Space had 15 of his own. C.J. Anderson led the team in rebounding with 9 boards. George Mason struggled immensely from long range, hitting just 1 of 18 from downtown. The Patriots were led by Otis Livingston II with 15 points. George Mason has now lost 4 of its last 5. These two teams are certainly heading in opposite directions down the stretch; that being said, I wouldn’t count either team out in terms of the A-10 Tournament in Brooklyn. Both teams have shown the capability to win big games this year, so watch out for a couple of upsets if either one manages to get hot.