GW’s inability to hit the outside jump shot doomed the Colonials against the Owls as they were unable to penetrate Temple’s stingy match-up zone. And without Brown, who suffered a toe injury during Wednesday night’s practice in Philadelphia, GW was no match for Owls. The Colonials (10-13, 4-6 Atlantic 10) fell 91-58 at the Liacouras Center, suffering their worst defeat of the season.

GW 92, Duquesne 66
Sunday, Feb. 11

The road has become quite a hazard for the Dukes. Led by six Colonials who scored in double-digits Sunday, GW routed Duquesne (7-17, 1-10 A-10) and handed the visitors their 10th-straight road loss. The 92-66 victory in front of 2,649 at the Smith Center, which included high-flying dunks by Jaason Smith, was a strong response after an overwhelming loss at Temple.

But, en route to the lopsided win, the Colonials jumped into a fight that ended with the ejections of GW’s Chris Monroe and Duquesne’ Kevin Forney. Both players are suspended for one game.

With 13:45 left in the game and GW ahead 57-35, Val Brown drove the lane and was fouled hard by Forney. The Dukes guard appeared to hold onto Brown, who was anxious to shake Forney loose. Pushing ensued after and the altercation made its way from the painted area by the GW basket to the area in front of the Colonials bench.

“All I did was foul Val Brown and Val Brown started tussling the ball away from me and then his whole team came and got in my face,” Forney said outside the locker room. “I tried to back off and then Monroe came and threw a punch at me and I reacted, which was the wrong thing to do.”

“He tied me up, an intentional foul,” Brown said. “I was trying to free myself. It really wasn’t a big deal, at least I don’t think, until everybody started getting hostile.”

There were two major incidents, the first coming when GW’s Attila Cosby put his hands on the face of Duquesne’s Courtney Wallace. Cosby was given a technical foul for his part in the action. The other incident came when Monroe appeared to hit Forney despite being held by back teammates.

Forney responded to Monroe by swinging at the GW sophomore, but missed Monroe and accidentally hit official Robert Donato in the face, sending him to the floor.

“Chris (Monroe) said he had an open hand and he was trying to shove the guy away from him,” Penders said. “That was his explanation to me.”

The officials checked the replay and spoke with both coaches center court, all part of the 20-minute delay after the fight. After Monroe and Forney were ejected, Brown hit his free throws from the original foul and Wallace (21 points) missed both attempts that resulted from the Cosby technical.

Cosby, who scored 10 of his 14 points in the first six minutes of the second half, was benched by Penders for the rest of the game following the fight.

“Even though Cosby didn’t throw a punch or anything, I just didn’t want him back in the ball game,” Penders said.

Penders sat Brown (12 points) after the free throws for a couple minutes to calm him. The GW coach said following the game that Brown was at 80 percent following a sprained tendon in his toe that occurred during a Wednesday night practice in Philadelphia.

As for the GW-dominated game, the Colonials made a 14-4 run to increase their 43-29 halftime to 57-35 when the fight occurred. After an Albert Roma (11 points) dunk with about 12 minutes left to play, the Colonials did not score another field goal until Smith received an alley-oop pass from Mike King (13 points) and slammed it home with six minutes to go giving the Colonials a 78-53 lead.

GW jumped out to a 7-0 lead before Duquesne made a 10-0 run to take a brief lead. The Colonials went ahead 13-12 with 12:55 left in the half and never trailed after that. A strong 12-4 run behind four Roma points gave the Colonials it’s double-digit halftime lead.

A-10 Commissioner Linda Bruno attended the game and took part in a halftime awards ceremony commemorating the A-10’s 25th anniversary. Bruno stood with GW Director of Athletics Jack Kvancz by the scorer’s table during the fight delay.

Temple 91, GW 58
Thursday, Feb. 8

With Val Brown sidelined with a toe injury and the Owls (14-11, 8-3 A-10) shooting a red-hot 52 percent from three-point range (12-for-23), the Colonials were simply overpowered Thursday night at the Liacouras Center.

Temple’s Quincy Wadley scored 21 points and Alex Wesby added 19 in the 91-58 win over the Colonials.

Monroe scored a game-high 25 points (8-for-22) and hit five of GW’s nine three-pointers (5-for-12), but the rest of the Colonials shot 4-of-25 from behind the arc.

“We worked the ball beautifully,” Penders said Sunday. “We got the ball to areas in the Temple zone.they were wide open looks and there’s just no excuse.”

King and Bernard Barrow shot a combined 1-for-13 from three-point range. The Colonials went on an 11-2 run to cut a large Temple lead to 41-28 by halftime, but a 12-3 Owls burst to open the second half doomed GW.