But the faces in the Smith Center midway through GW’s Atlantic 10 home opener against Saint Louis on Tuesday showed a mix of dismay and disbelief.
The Billikens came into the game on a two-game losing streak with an 8-6 record, rebuilding from the A-10 regular season championship squad that lost all five starters last season. But they were winning. Winning a strange first half where both teams were shooting near 60 percent, but winning.
They were winning, precisely, until Joe McDonald hit his second of a pair of free throws to tie the game at 49 with 12:19 to play. The Colonials hung on to win 75-72, beating Saint Louis to go to 2-0 in A-10 play and 12-3 overall. McDonald finished with 11 points and five rebounds as one of five Colonials to finish in double figures, led by Patricio Garino’s 18 points with six rebounds.
“We’re not a consistent team yet but we’re a good team, and hopefully we’ll learn that you have to play hard against everybody and that was a good game, a good win for us,” head coach Mike Lonergan said.
Just five minutes before McDonald hit his shot, Saint Louis had led by 12.
GW’s defense was wearing Saint Louis down, goading the Billikens as they passed around trying to find a look until Milik Yarbrough, who finished with a game-high 26 points, had a rare miss on a desperate attempt as the buzzer sounded. The shot was too strong and clanged off the far rim.
Just after, the Colonials got the ball up to Kevin Larsen who was double teamed in the low post. Still, he muscled it up, but as he banked the ball of the glass, it rolled off the basket. Larsen picked it up off the floor and slammed it against his own forehead several times. He had gotten fouled, but only made one of the free throws.
Adding insult to injury, Saint Louis hit another one of 11 threes in the game on the next possession.
“We came out a little flat, myself included. I try to tell myself, ‘You’ve got to work harder in the second half. Lead by example and play your butt off,’” Larsen said.
But Larsen – who finished with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists – got another shot after McDonald miraculously saved GW’s next chance on offense, throwing his body for a falling rebound and hitting an easy bucket in the low post, the kind he’d been unable to establish earlier in the game. The Colonials managed just two offensive rebounds in the first half, but ended with a 17-6 edge in second-chance points with 10 offensive boards in the second half.
A couple plays after Larsen scored, Saint Louis missed the same kind of easy layup that just didn’t go in. Then Yuta Watanabe hit a three and GW was down by only two, bringing the crowd to its feet.
Watanabe also hit the go-ahead three pointer and finished with 10 points and three rebounds.
“He’s tremendous,” Garino said. “I think his energy is very, very necessary from the bench.”
Watanabe was the hero again at the last second when the Colonials got another scare after going back and forth with the Billikens, who tied the score twice late.
Saint Louis, down by three, got the ball back after an overthrown pass lost a possession for the Colonials. They hadn’t gotten a shot off with less than two seconds left in the game, but Larsen kicked the ball out of bounds and the Billikens got to reset. They managed a last-dash attempt for three, but Watanabe blocked it to seal the win.
The Colonials got just enough plays – eight steals, three from Garino, which helped the Colonials outscore the Billikens 19-7 off turnovers, an eventual 31-25 rebounding margin and a 34-24 edge in the paint, ending the game 23-34 from the free-throw line after starting 1-8 – to stop the Billikens, who shot nearly 55 percent in the game, and just enough for the Colonials to beat Saint Louis for the first time since 2011.
But Lonergan said he wasn’t thinking about previous wins or previous years, and that he’s expecting the Colonials, not the Billikens, to play the part of the A-10 elite.
“It’s time for us to beat everybody, hopefully, so I don’t look at it as we hadn’t beaten Saint Louis,” Lonergan said.
The Colonials go back on the road next, visiting La Salle on Saturday for a 12:30 p.m. tipoff against the Explorers.
