ST. LOUIS, Feb. 13 – The first meeting between the GW men’s basketball team and Saint Louis earned the Billikens national notoriety for scoring only 20 points, a Division I low since the inception of the shot clock. This fact was not lost on Saint Louis junior Kevin Lisch, but he said that it did not change the way his team approached the second contest.
“Our game plan was very similar,” he said. “The first time we played, they only scored 49 points but people don’t remember that because we only scored 20. We have a lot of confidence in our defense.”
“Of course (we wanted to retaliate after that loss). That’s our competitive nature,” senior Bryce Husak added. “But again, you don’t sit back and think that you just want to win because of what happened the last time.”
The Billikens lead the Atlantic 10 and are No. 15 in the nation in scoring defense, holding opponents this season to an average of 59.3 points, while the Colonials averaged 63.5 points per game entering the contest. Their 26.9 percent shooting percentage from Wednesday is their second-lowest this season, only about two percentage points higher than in a loss at Virginia Tech in early December.
Billikens find momentum late in first half behind three-point shooting
What started out as a low-scoring affair, with the teams tied at 10 with just less than eight minutes into the game, quickly turned into a Saint Louis shooting seminar, as the squad hit two three-pointers in-a-row and went on a 20-4 run to end the half with a 30-14 lead.
The Billikens’ lead only ballooned in the second half thanks to their ability to hit shots from behind the arc. They shot just more than 50 percent for the game from three-point range. Husak, a seven-foot forward who had 15 points, made two from downtown, both in the second half, to help his team build its lead while senior Dwayne Polk was 4-for-5 from the same distance.
GW’s perimeter defense has struggled all season, allowing six teams to shoot more than 40 percent from behind the arc. Each has ended in a Colonials loss.
Hobbs says postseason still not on his mind
The Colonials are tied with St. Bonaventure for last place in the A-10 and two games outside of qualifying for the conference tournament, which begins in less than a month. Fordham, which is one game head of GW, won in a contest between the two teams Jan. 16.
Despite the fact that the Colonials have not missed the A-10 tournament since it began in the mid-1980s and won the championship in two of the last three years, head coach Karl Hobbs said he is not focused on making it to Atlantic City.
“Everyone keeps asking me about that,” a hoarse Hobbs said after the game. “I’m not concerned about that. I’m about us improving and getting better. If that happens, those things will take care of themselves.”
