Posted Saturday, Feb. 17, 5:50 p.m.

GW’s men’s basketball coach Karl Hobbs decided before Saturday’s 84-72 win against Temple at Smith Center that his team, coming off four straight losses, needed a change. Hobbs benched senior Dokun Akingbade and sophomore Rob Diggs, a pair of his big men, for the start of the game.

The team got the message. The Colonials (16-8, 7-5 Atlantic 10) dominated Temple on the boards Saturday for its first win since Jan. 27 against Rhode Island and the 300th win in Smith Center history.

Senior Carl Elliott had the first triple-double in program history with 17 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. Elliott, who did not start against Saint Joseph’s Feb. 14 due to a violation of team rules, led five GW players in double figures.

Diggs and Akingbade had started every game this season for GW, but the duo was allowing larger opponents to get second-chance points. Freshmen Hermann Opoku and Travis King took their places in the starting lineup. After the game, Elliott called the change “a great move.”

“I thought the change got the result that I wanted, and that was to get them to play with more intensity,” Hobbs said. “Sometimes change is good…I felt like we needed to tweak something.”

Hobbs said that the team had worked on rebounding technique in practice and that the results of the hard work were starting to show. GW out-rebounded the Owls 40 to 29.

“It’s a process and we’re still learning how to be a good basketball team,” Hobbs said.

The Colonials return to action Wednesday night at 7:30 p.m. at Smith Center against Richmond.
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