CORVALLIS, Ore. – To say that the 2010-11 season got off to a rocky start for the men’s basketball team would be an understatement.
Before the Colonials even took the floor, they lost their main offensive weapon, sophomore Lasan Kromah, for the season to a sprained left foot. GW then opened the season with a loss in the NIT Season Tip-Off to Boston University and suffered through a four-game losing streak that included losses to Hampton, George Mason and Navy. As a team, GW shot less than 40 percent from the floor in six of its first eight games.
All that, combined with the fact that GW hadn’t beaten a major-conference opponent on the road since 2001, meant that expectations weren’t high for GW when it took the floor on the road against Pac-10 opponent Oregon State. The Colonials had other plans though, seizing the lead three minutes into the game and never relinquishing it en route to an 87-79 win.
“It’s a great win. It’s a long trip and I think we all dealt with it very well. It’s just great to come into their building, a Pac-10 team, and get a win,” junior guard Tony Taylor said. “It’s definitely one of our signature wins of the season. I think it was a great win and we just played so hard. I’m just really proud of this team and how we conducted ourselves off the court and on the court,” he added.”
Four Colonials (4-5) scored in double-figures against the Beavers, including Taylor and freshman Nemanja Mikic who each had 19 points. Taylor had one of the most impressive stat lines of the season for GW, adding 11 assists, a five rebounds to his 19 points while surrendering only one turnover against Oregon State. Sophomores Dwayne Smith and Bryan Bynes rounded out the group of high-scoring Colonials with 15 and 10 points, respectively.
“It feels great because it was a win where every guy played a part. If you look at the stat sheet, every guy came in and contributed and did something to help us win this game today,” head coach Karl Hobbs said. “We felt, like I said all along, we were doing all the other things well enough to win, we just weren’t shooting the ball well enough to win. It was just good to see us put together a complete game and, obviously, it’s as good a win as you can get, to come here and beat a Pac-10 team on the road.”
The game was GW’s first since beating Towson at home a week and a half ago. The nine-day layoff gave the Colonials a chance to concentrate on final exams as well as make adjustments and refocus mentally after the shaky start.
“The nine days was definitely key. We got to finish off finals, that’s always a tough stretch,” Taylor said. “We rested out bodies and became prepared. We were really prepared for this game and we just worked so hard during practices with extra shooting. We all know that we haven’t been shooting very well, so everyone has been in the gym extra.”
The extra time off translated into a performance unlike any other GW has put forth this season. The Colonials shot 54.4 percent from the floor against the Beavers and shot 47.8 percent from behind the three-point line. Oregon State, which prior to Saturday night’s game had the second best steals per game average in the country, had just two takeaways against GW.
The Colonials, who have spent the bulk of their season to this point playing from behind, played well with the lead, fighting off repeated Oregon State rallies without ever losing control of the game. Whereas earlier in the season swings in momentum might have caused the Colonials to tighten up, the team remained more or less calm and collected against the Beavers.
“We played loose, we shot the ball loose. If a guy made a turnover, he didn’t feel like it was the end of the world,” Hobbs said. “I think, you know, we had some time off, we took advantage of the break, which was what we needed. They needed to kind of regroup. I thought the most important thing was, we played with confidence.”
The team won’t have much time to celebrate its win, with a home game Wednesday night against East Carolina at 7 p.m. Saturday night’s win was far from perfect, Hobbs said, as evidenced by the Colonials’ less-than-stellar 57 percent mark from the free throw line and by sophomore David Pellom’s late technical foul that gave the Beavers extra free throws with less than a minute to play. After such a slow start though, the win does give the Colonials reason for optimism.
“I think that tonight was a big step in the right direction,” Hobbs said.
