Junior guard Patricio Garino scored a season-high 23 points and secured a team-leading seven rebounds Thursday against UMBC, guiding the Colonials to an 83-60 victory and their fourth win of the season.
But Garino was not alone: All but one dressed GW player scored, and all five starters finished with at least seven points and three rebounds each, as the Colonials shot 44.9 percent from the field and outscored UMBC 44-26 in the paint on the night.
“The first half was kind of sloppy … and we had some breakdowns, but it was good to get Kevin [Larsen] off to a good start,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “[Larsen] scored a lot inside, and Patricio did a good job attacking the basket … so it’s nice to get out with a win, no injuries, and get a lot of our young guys some playing time.”
Following a disappointing performance against Seton Hall, junior forward Kevin Larsen bounced back against the Retrievers, trailing Garino with 14 points and six rebounds on the night.
“You always want to do better than you did the last game,” Larsen said. “I was definitely more motivated and just trying to get my game back to where it was last year.”
The Colonials were able fire up the crowd early, as a familiar alley-oop from Savage to Garino opened up the scoring and gave GW a lead that it would maintain all night.
Garino led the team in the first half with 12 points and two steals as the Colonials shot an impressive 58.6 percent from the field in the frame to the Retrievers’ 46.2 percent. Larsen led the half with five rebounds and scored 10 points from the field.
But UMBC remained in the game at halftime, only down by 12 heading into the locker room because of their stellar shooting from beyond the arc. Half of the Retrievers’ 12 field goals in the half came from deep, despite GW holding the No. 1 spot in three-point defense entering the game.
However, GW was able to tighten up defensively in the second half, forcing the Retrievers to shoot 0-6 from three in the final frame, and causing UMBC to turn the ball over 21 times on the night to the Colonials’ nine.
Although the Colonials also finished with a 40-30 rebounding edge over the Retrievers, collecting 16 offensive rebounds to UMBC’s four, Lonergan said senior forward John Kopriva and Larsen still need to improve their board play.
“Eight or 10 minutes in, I told John, ‘You have no fouls and no rebounds,’ and then he really started playing hard,” Lonergan said. “It’s kind of contagious when guys play hard, but I think we should be a much better offensive rebounding team … Our guards can really rebound, but we’ve also got to get our bigs rebounding better.”
The Colonials also set two defensive season-high records with eight blocks and 12 steals. Kopriva had a team-high three blocks.
Junior Ryan McCoy also saw his first significant minutes of the season, after he was sidelined with a minor back injury, and hit a three-pointer early in the first to put up his first points as a Colonial.
The Manhattan transfer was one of six Colonials to score off the bench, as the reserves recorded a total of 24 points on the night. But Lonergan said he is still looking to his starters to make the biggest impact on the court.
“It’s hard for me to get confidence in too many guys, especially young guys,” Lonergan said. “These juniors should be able to play a lot of minutes, and hopefully they’ll be focused because we’ve got some great opponents coming up.”
The Colonials return to action Sunday in the BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center, where they will take on Charlotte at 2:30 p.m.
