He was satisfied: GW had won a true road game for just the second time this season.
“Road games are hard,” Lonergan said. “I think it’s 71 percent or whatever that home teams win, and that’s for a reason. That’s why I, we, were happy we beat Saint Joe’s even though we let them back in the game.”
GW’s point totals this season in away games: 42 at Virginia, 54 at Seton Hall, 51 at Penn State and now 50 at La Salle on Saturday, snapping a six-game winning streak. All were losses leaving GW with just one non-conference road win at Rutgers and one so far in A-10 play at Saint Joe’s.
Some of those results can hardly be called bad losses. No one has beaten No. 3 Virginia, No. 19 Seton Hall has upset many top contenders, including Villanova, and entering Penn State’s cult-like domain is notoriously treacherous. La Salle, though, was the worst result and didn’t help show that the Colonials can break serve.
“You don’t want to say, ‘Hey, let’s just win every home game and not worry about the road,’” Lonergan said.
The home court winning percentage for Division I men’s basketball games is 67.48 percent, according to RPIRatings.com. The Wall Street Journal called men’s college basketball the toughest road game in sports. So it isn’t easy to win in someone else’s house.
But to be a contender, that’s what teams have to do, at least some of the time. Last year the Colonials took care of business at St. Bonaventure and George Mason, got to 20 wins for the first time in seven seasons with a big victory in a packed house at Richmond and hung on at Fordham in the regular season closer.
At La Salle, nothing seemed to go right. The only time the Colonials scored in the first 12 minutes of the game was when a La Salle center accidentally tipped a ball in GW’s hoop. On one play, when Patricio Garino got wide open off the break, his dunk attempt slammed off the rim.
“That’s hard to overcome on the road to anybody – we had three of our best players combine for 15 turnovers and these are veterans,” Lonergan said.
That doesn’t mean the team has been abysmal every time it has left the confines of the Smith Center. The Colonials are 4-0 on neutral courts with a win over Charlotte at the BB&T Classic and a 3-0 tournament win at the Diamond Head Classic, including a marquee win over then-No. 11 Wichita State (if anyone needed reminding).
And struggles on the road aren’t exactly new. GW had a 14-1 home record last season but was 6-5 in away games and 4-3 on neutral courts, including at the A-10 Championship and NCAA Tournament. Even La Salle, who the Colonials beat down 69-47 at home late last January, also topped a visiting GW 76-72 earlier that month.
Clearly no road game is an automatic win. The Colonials’ next trip, to Fordham, should be relatively friendly, but the following away games at VCU and Rhode Island will look pretty hairy if GW’s road legs aren’t broken in yet. Lonergan, however, said he thinks they will be.
“In league games anything can happen, so I don’t know. We were definitely in bed early. I thought we were prepared mentally but obviously we weren’t. I’m not looking at it as we can’t win on the road, that’s for sure,” Lonergan said.
