There were plenty of “almost” moments as the buzzer ticked down on men’s basketball games last season, including a 68-65 loss at Rutgers. Fortunately for the Colonials, they will get a chance to redeem themselves this season, as GW is set to once again face off against the Scarlet Knights, this time at home on Dec. 4.

GW currently holds a 18-23 all-time record against Rutgers (14-5 at home), with most of those games coming when the Scarlet Knights were a member of the Atlantic 10. They now play in the new American Athletic Conference after the team underwent plenty of controversy this year.

Rutgers finished 15-16 (5-13) in the Big East last season and is set to return three of their top four scorers from that squad – Wally Judge, Myles Mack, and Jerome Seagears.

In last year’s 68-65 loss, GW overcame a 15 point deficit and took the lead with less than 10 minutes to play. On the final play, Patricio Garino’s game-tying three-point shot was too strong, and GW was forced to leave with a bitter loss.

“We want to shoot the ball a lot better than we did last year,” head coach Mike Lonergan said in a video release. “Hopefully we can build on that, we were an inexperienced team last year and we let that game slip away at the end.”