CAMBRIDGE, Mass.– Something has to change.
Head coach Mike Lonergan and senior guard Tony Taylor stood in a small hallway outside their locker room at No. 25 (ESPN/USA Today) Harvard after GW’s 69-48 loss. Away from the buzz of a court winding down from a game, backs pressed against a brick wall and the locker room door, in low light, the two thought about the contest that had just ended and came to the same conclusion: something about GW’s play needs to change.
“It was very frustrating. We’re just losing, and I think everybody, that’s taking a toll on them. We’ve got to play better. That’s the main thing, we’ve got to play a lot better and stay in front of the ball, contain the ball, pressure the guards a lot more,” Taylor said.
They were walking away from a loss where the Colonials (6-11) posted a new season-low in points, a game where GW played its worst half of the season and couldn’t overcome that start after the break. They were frustrated and fed up, and both underlined a need for an immediate shift on the court.
“Our problems aren’t confidence, but we’ve got to get better, at some point, playing these teams,” Lonergan said. “They’ve got to toughen us up.”
GW didn’t tie the Crimson or gain the lead once over 40 minutes of play. Harvard set the tone immediately, using a 15-4 run over the first six minutes of play and reminding the Colonials why the Crimson possesses the seventh-longest home victory streak in the nation, now 23 straight.
The Colonials momentarily found their footing, returning to close the gap within four points after a brief 6-0 run midway through the first. With 11 minutes and 39 seconds remaining in the half, junior forward David Pellom stole the ball from Harvard, quickly running it back for a layup that brought GW to 11 points. The Colonials didn’t score another basket, save two free throws, for the rest of the half.
GW finished the first shooting just 15 percent from the floor, going a staggeringly disappointing 3-for-20. They shot 20 percent from the three-point line – making just one on the first – and got just five points from the bench. Dishing out only two assists over 20 minutes of play, the Colonials scored just four points in the paint to open play.
In what has become an unwelcome pattern for GW this season, the team’s second half effort was markedly better than the first, but still couldn’t overcome the 20-point hole at halftime. The Colonials shot 40 percent from the floor in the second, improving to 20 points in the paint and 14 off the bench. As they ran through the paces of their offense, trying to cut to the basket or shoot up and over a defender, the Colonials couldn’t execute enough plays and couldn’t make enough shots fall to overtake a daunting Crimson lead.
“It was disappointing. Another first half where we get blown out in the first half and the game is basically over, and then we settle down, and start to play a little. But it’s too little, too late, a broken record,” Lonergan said. “Harvard’s a better team then us. They’re more talented, they were better coached today. About the only thing I thought we did was we made free throws.”
Taylor netted the most points for the Colonials, adding 13 and dishing out two assists and a steal. Red-shirt sophomore guard Lasan Kromah was next, posting 12 points and two boards, but eight of his points came as the game was winding down. From the bench, Lonergan directed his team to get physical, to fight and get their hands up on plays, and junior forward Dwayne Smith answered the call, pulling down a season-high 10 boards in 19 minutes of play.
“I felt bad for Tony, I thought he played with a lot of heart, him and Dwanye. Played with a high level of intensity, his man doesn’t really score,” Lonergan said. “Dwayne and Tony, they gave great effort and I feel bad for them, but we just have to get more guys playing at a higher level and haven’t been able to do that, so I have to figure some things out.
Harvard shot above 60 percent across the game, ending with a season-best 64.9 average from the floor, and earned an even 50 percent from the perimeter on play. In the first half, the Crimson supplemented their defense with an equally potent offense, and carried that into play after the break. Playing a quick, precise motion offense, Harvard kept GW always trailing a few paces behind, executing long, graceful passes and running around their Colonial defenders with ease.
Though GW switched from man to zone in an attempt to find an approach that would stop the onslaught, the Crimson used the whole shot clock, finding their inside man and spreading the Colonials so thin that GW wasn’t able to get to the ball in time to stop a shot.
“Today, our defense wasn’t very good. I thought our defense was good for 25 seconds and then one guy would just have a letdown and not play hard and then they’d score with the last six, ten seconds of the shot clock,” Lonergan said. “Basketball’s a game where you have to have five guys committed to defense and we didn’t have that, for the whole time on the shot clock today.”
The key to the game was under the basket. Harvard patrolled the post unrelentingly, establishing its dominance quickly and effectively. The Colonials were out-muscled under the net, and would often turn around to find a Crimson player placed squarely in their path, an unyielding obstacle between GW and the basket. The Colonials struggled to set screens, and couldn’t post up, losing the battle of possession to Harvard. GW was outrebounded 15-9 on the first, but worked to revamp their efforts at the glass in the second, ending the game tied for boards with Harvard at 25. Still, the Colonials couldn’t capitalize on their 14-3 offensive rebounding edge.
“Our post men got completely manhandled today, really. The three post players on Harvard didn’t miss a shot. They just destroyed us at both ends of the court. We’ve had some guys that have played well, but they needed to step it up tonight and statistics tell the story and you just look at some of our post players’ statistics,” Lonergan said. “The other team just destroyed us with inside scoring at will.”
After Saturday’s performance, the trip back to the District provides an interlude for the team to think about what, exactly, is happening. When GW defeated Rhode Island Jan. 11, Lonergan said, he thought maybe they would get a boost and turn things around after the victory. Taylor felt the same way, and in the postgame press conference after that win, talked about the relief that comes with a victory, and how awful the feeling that accompanies a loss.
Lonergan’s frank in his desire for the team to turn things around, and his senior guard agrees. Something has to change, and Taylor is determined to take the first step in getting there.
“We’re going to have a meeting tomorrow, a team meeting, players only,” Taylor said. “And we’re going to figure something out. We have to start working a lot harder, we have to change things, because this is not the way that any of the seniors want to go out.”
