For Dartmouth College to have a chance to beat the GW men’s basketball team, it could have tried to force more than five misses from Carl Elliott. Big Green may have wanted to keep an eye on Rob Diggs, who blocked three shots and scored nine points. The Ivy League doormat may have even considered a more stringent defensive plan for guarding Noel Wilmore, a taciturn sophomore guard who connected on two three-point shots en route to a career-high12 points.
Dartmouth did nothing, connected on only 36.5 percent of its shots and allowed GW to maintain a double-digit lead all game in the Colonials’ 94-49 bludgeoning at the Smith Center. Elliott, a senior guard, put up 29 points, a career high, and dished out five assists.
The win, which gives GW a 2-0 record on the season, allowed 3,261 fans to watch the Colonials’ lead balloon to as many as 45 points in preparation for its third opponent of the season: second-year Division I program Longwood Friday night at Smith Center.
Karl Hobbs, GW’s head coach, said he looks to ensure fundamentals are in place in a game against a clearly inferior opponent such as Dartmouth and Longwood. Overall the basics were in place against Big Green but a few things raised red flags for the coach.
“I thought we got a little lazy at times fighting over screens,” Hobbs said. “I thought our communication broke down on a few switches. I believe in our secondary break, we kept the ball to one side of the floor.”
Hobbs declined comment on any opponent beyond Longwood.
All fundamentals that were absent apparently did not matter, as Elliott outscored Big Green 19-18 in the first half. Elliott’s piercing offensive presence, a needed entity for a newly established guard-centric team, was potent despite seven turnovers.
“I see a guy who worked extremely hard over the summer and I see a very, very focused basketball player,” Hobbs said of Elliott. “I see a guy who understands what we need from him: to be very, very good.”
Sophomore Maureece Rice completed the triumvirate of double-digit backcourt scorers with 13 points. Rice went 4-for-9 from the floor and nailed a pair of three-point attempts.
In GW’s continually maturing front court, senior Regis Koundjia played what has become a typical game in a little more than a half-season at GW: he turned over the ball over twice, missed six of his 11 shots and slipped further into his stereotypical out-of-control mantra that he has come to embody yet still scored 15 points. Hobbs said he played with a lot of poise and improved from Nov. 10’s contest against Boston University.
“He let the game come to him a little bit and he’s got to continue to play that way,” Hobbs said.
NOTES: Carl Elliott was the only player made available to media after the contest.Elliott has not missed a free throw yet this season.
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