BRONX, N.Y., Jan. 16 — With six losses and no wins on the road this season, the GW men’s basketball team entered Rose Hill Gym at Fordham Wednesday night with what seemed like a good opportunity to finally find a victory away from home.
The Rams were 7-8 entering the game and winless so far in the Atlantic 10. The one edge they appeared to have over the Colonials – who were 5-6 and 1-0 in conference – was that the game was being played on their home court.
For the seventh time this season, GW was unable to win on the road. Senior Maureece Rice said after the 66-53 loss that his team desperately needs a road win and that he had seen this as a good chance to get one.
While going on the road can be difficult for any team, it has been particularly tough for GW. Some of the teams the Colonials have lost to away from Smith Center are quality programs, such as UCLA and the University of Alabama. But some road opponents, like the University of Maryland, Baltimore County;Binghamton University; and now Fordham, may have been beatable.
Head coach Karl Hobbs said after Wednesday night’s game that he thought the Rams were simply the better team. But the 19-3 run to start the second half that put the Colonials back into the contest and gave them the lead for a short period of time, showed that they were able to compete with Fordham. Perhaps continuously losing on the road has gotten to the players on GW’s roster, causing them to deem it nearly impossible.
Against Fordham, it was the bench that struggled the most, contributing just eight points. Junior Rob Diggs had 19 points, Rice added 13 and sophomore Damian Hollis had 11. In the games against Alabama and Binghamton, it was also the starters who did most of the scoring. It appears that only a few players have found a way to be productive when not on Smith Center’s court.
“We could have gotten our first win on the road (tonight),” Rice said. “That would have been a big win on the road, especially going into the game on Saturday.”
Perhaps the Colonials’ biggest advantage going into Saturday’s game, which is against No. 20 Xavier, is that the contest is at home.
