Things are beginning to get interesting at the Atlantic 10 Tournament. The Colonials upset Xavier 83-74 in Thursday night’s quarterfinal round, setting up a semi-final battle with Temple. The Colonials are now just two wins away from an automatic NCAA berth.
Friday night’s game against the Owls will be played at Philadelphia’s First Union Spectrum at 9:30 p.m. St. Joseph’s will play Massachusetts in an earlier semi-final game. GW’s match-up with Temple will mark the second time the teams will face each other in the last six days. GW lost to the Owls in overtime Feb. 3 at the Smith Center.
Xavier (21-7) swept the regular season series against GW (14-17). SirValiant Brown led GW scorers with 19 points while Chris Monroe scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds. Mike King scored 18.
A-10 Player of the Year David West, a Colonials killer this season, scored 20 points for Xavier, but only managed three in the second half. He did not score in the final 14:50 of the game.
“We used five different guys against him,” said Penders, according to GW Sports Information. “We just kept switching people, and each guy played differently.”
The Colonials and Musketeers were tied at the half 42-42, and Xavier trailed the closely contested match-up 72-70 with 3:03 remaining after a Kevin Frey (20 points) basket. The Colonials went on a game-ending 11-2 run to capture victory and keep their postseason hopes alive. King completed a three-point play at 1:43 to make it 75-70, and Monroe scored four points in the run to put Xavier away.
-Lauren Silva contributed to this report.
