SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 23 — Rhode Island junior Jimmy Baron scored his thousandth point against the GW’s men’s basketball team in a 81-70 victory Wednesday night. The milestone came on a three-point shot early in the first half, but so did almost all of Baron’s 17 points. The guard was 4-for-6 from downtown and the same from the field.
The Rams, who are a 37 percent three-point shooting team, shot 45.5 percent from three-point range and a percentage point less from the field. The Colonials, meanwhile, were 9-for-26 from behind the arc. GW head coach Karl Hobbs said he does not think the Rams’ ability to shoot the three was what decided the win.
“When we missed our shots, they made theirs,” Hobbs said. “It was them converting in transition, them getting second shots. It wasn’t so much the threes.”
Concerns about judgement
Hobbs said he was disappointed with a lot of his team’s judgment against the Rams, especially when compared to how the Colonials performed during a 74-66 loss to then-No. 20 Xavier Jan. 19. Hobbs said he thought his team made good choices against the Musketeers but that judgment was missing for a lot of the Rhode Island game.
“I thought against Xavier, we made much better decisions and that kept us in the game,” Hobbs said. “Tonight, there were a lot of times where we needed another pass on offense instead of a rushed shot or another rotation on defense.”
There were a few lapses of judgment that stood out during the game. In the first half, with the game tied, junior Wynton Witherspoon tried to alley-oop to junior Rob Diggs during a 4-on-1 breakaway when Diggs had the opportunity for an easy lay-up. Later in the game, Witherspoon attempted a fancy dunk over a Rhode Island player only to miss the shot.
“We missed easy opportunities to score,” Witherspoon said. “That’s an easy shot to make, I just have to make it.”
When Hobbs was asked about how that play showed Witherspoon’s athleticism even though he did not make the basket, Hobbs simply stated, “He missed the shot. I’m not going to address it other than that.”
