(Photo courtesy of Hunter Hensel)
BROOKLYN NY – No. 15 seed George Washington lost in heartbreaking fashion to No. 10 La Salle in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
Down 60-61, senior guard James Bishop missed a fadeaway midrange jumper, then missed a deep contested three after redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. grabbed the offensive rebound off of Bishop’s first miss.
Heartbreak.
GW: 60, La Salle: 61 pic.twitter.com/IMmzgM9ocV
— David Korn (@david_korn4) March 12, 2024
“The first shot, I’m just trying to get space to get open to shoot. The second one, the ball kind of rolled to me,” said Bishop. “I saw the clock was up to 2.1 seconds, so I was trying to get a look off. Had a pretty clean one, just didn’t go in.”
Bishop scored a team-high 19 points on 4-8 shooting from three, but was much more inefficient inside the arc, going 1-10 on two-point field goals.
On the previous play, Senior guard Jhamir Brickus made what would end up being the game-winning basket on a turnaround midrange jumper just outside the paint. Brickus also drew a foul on the make, but was unable to convert the and-one.
JHAMIR BRICKS AND 1 FOR THE LEAD 😱 pic.twitter.com/ObOslV8gIK
— Michael Bergman (@MLBergman_) March 12, 2024
“I wasn’t ready to go home,” said Brickus. “In that moment, I was just trying to do anything that I could do for my team to win.
Brickus was exceptional for the Explorers all game. He scored a game-high 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out three assists and shot an efficient 9-16 from the field and 3-5 from three.
After giving up the first two points of the game, GW led for the entire first half, going up by as much as nine. However, despite holding their lead, the Revolutionaries had a difficult time generating any real offense outside of the occasional free throw. In the first half, there was a 6:27 stretch where GW did not register a field goal, but was able to keep their lead due to a much-improved defensive effort.
The second half was much more back-and-forth after La Salle was able to make some key halftime adjustments.
“We double-teamed three different times and it cost us dearly,” said La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy. “We eliminated that in the second half… and we just walled up and tried to make [Babatunde Akingbola] shoot up and over the top of us.”
GW once again found themselves struggling to score, but was able to get it going with about nine minutes left in the game after La Salle had taken a five point lead when redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards was able to score five straight points in his new role as sixth man.
Edwards ended the game with 10 points and nine rebounds.
Buchanan, who scored 12 of his 14 points in the second half also began to take on more of the scoring load in crunch-time. He was attacking the basket, getting to the free throw line and made a clutch corner three with just under two minutes to go to give GW a 60-59 lead, their final lead of the game.
One of the bright spots of GW’s season was Buchanan. as a redshirt freshman, he averaged 15.7 points per game, 6.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.3 blocks on 54.9% shooting. Buchanan also acted as GW’s primary ball-handler for large stretches of time, allowing Bishop to operate off-ball as a pure scorer.
Just hours before the game, Buchanan learned that he lost out on A-10 Rookie of the Year to Saint Joseph’s freshman guard Xzayvier Brown, who averaged 13.3 points per game, 3.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.9 steals and shot 43.2% from three.
“I don’t pay too much attention to that stuff, honestly. Hats off to the kid who won it. He had a good year,” said Buchanan. “I didn’t really care, honestly. I was more focused on the team and what we had at stake. That will always be my focus, the team. I couldn’t care less about my personal success.”
Buchanan’s three was the last basket GW would make all game.
“Disappointing ending to what’s been a very difficult year for us,” said GW head coach Chris Caputo.
Not only was this the final game of GW’s season, but it was the final game of Bishop’s collegiate career. Despite having one of most decorated in bodies of work in program history, Bishop was never able to find any real postseason success, going 1-4 in the A-10 tournament in his four seasons at GW.
His only win came in 2021, when as the No. 11 seed, GW was able to beat No. 14 Fordham in the first round before losing to No. 6 George Mason. In 2022 as the No. 7 seed, GW lost to No. 10 UMass in the second round. In 2023 once again as the No. 7 seed, GW lost to No. 10 Saint Joseph’s.
“I don’t think it’s clicked in yet, but I mean, Im just happy I was able to play for GW and help the program and be around this special group of guys this year,” said Bishop. “It didn’t necessarily go our way, but I love how we fought. I wouldn’t change the decision to come back for anything.”
“[Bishop] is a pleasure, really, to be around every day. So low maintenance, he’s so even-keeled. For me, he was really crutch as you’re trying to build a program,” said Caputo. “To have a guy that you know you can kind of lean on a little bit in certain situations was certainly a blessing.”
GW season, highlighted by a 12-game losing streak in conference play and a last-place finish was an overwhelming disappointment. After beginning the year 14-3, everything seemed to go wrong.
Redshirt freshman forward Garrett Johnson, who was averaging 13.4 points and 5.6 rebounds, ended up missing the final eight games after experiencing soreness and mobility issues in his left hip that stemmed from his rare benign tumor that caused him to be away from basketball for two-and-a-half years and undergo four different surgeries and nine rounds of chemotherapy.
Buchanan also dealt with injury issues, missing three games and playing through significant pain in a game in which Caputo later admitted he should sat out with a lower-body injury.
During the postgame press conference, Buchanan confirmed that he would be returning to GW next season.
“Disappointing year. That it. It was disappointing,” said Buchanan. “I’m just eager to come back next year and be back in this position here and just make sure everything is different.”
Just as GW finally appeared to be turning a corner after beating St. Bonaventure at home and narrowly losing to Duquesne on the road in their final two games, their season, and Bishop’s career, is over.
La Salle will face No. 7 seed St. Bonaventure on Wednesday 5:00 pm. The Explorers beat St. Bonaventure on Feb. 21 72-59, and has now won five of their last seven.
