1. Kevin Larsen was on his game.
The 6-10 forward has had an up-and-down season, but showed exactly what he is capable of Thursday night. Larsen scored a career-high 22 points as well as a team-high 11 rebounds and three assists en route to the Colonials’ 13th win of the season.
GW is currently 11-1 when Larsen scores in double digits, while in three of the team’s four losses the big man put up just five points or less. His 7.5 rebounds per game is best on the team and sixth best in the Atlantic 10.
“[Larsen’s] a great player and really difficult to defend,” Richmond head coach Chris Mooney said. “He can score on his own but he’s also a terrific passer so you can’t commit all the time to double-teaming him. He’s probably the first guy you talk about.”
Larsen said he found success playing with the flow and letting the ball come to him against Richmond, as opposed to trying to do much like he thinks he did against La Salle where he led in rebounds but scored zero points for the first time all season.
“[Larsen’s] one of the best passers on the team, he’s a great facilitator,” junior guard Joe McDonald said. “When he’s aggressive it makes all of us better, you know I get open threes or Kethan gets his driving lane. When Kevin’s aggressive our team is a lot better.”
He may not be the absolute key to his team’s success, but if Larsen can consistently realize his potential, the Colonials will be that much tougher to beat.
2. Clutch shooting.
Despite the record-breaking season GW had last year, free throw shooting was a statistic the team could never really overcome. The team finished third worst in the A-10 last year, shooting 65.4 percent from the line.
Currently the Colonials are averaging 68 percent from the stripe, sixth best in the conference, but were able to go 82.8 percent at the line against Richmond, hitting a season-best 24 of 29 attempts.
More than half of the 24 points scored at the line were from Larsen and junior guard Kethan Savage who combined for 17. In multiple game-on-the-line situations, GW’s shooters came up big, and if that composure can carry through conference play, the Colonials will have a much easier time winning close games.
Away from the foul line, McDonald was able to knock down the biggest shot of the game, a corner three to put his team up by two in the second overtime period.
Since the departure of sharp shooter Maurice Creek, the Colonials have been searching for a player who can perform with the game on the line. While McDonald may not always be that player, he was on Thursday night.
“Joe was open, and he’s a big shot maker,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “That was definitely what we needed…We were all confident that when he shot it, it was going to go in.”
3. Rebounding as a team.
In a three-point double-overtime victory, you would expect both teams to be close in almost all statistical categories. But GW was able to outrebound Richmond 43-24 Thursday night, getting 13 offensive boards to Richmond’s two, which led to 19 second chance points for the Colonials, while the Spiders had none.
“They run their offense so close to the basket and I think that their guys are usually very good offensive rebounders,” Mooney said. “It puts pressure on you because during the possession most of the time most teams are so spread out but… it’s easier for them to go try and get an offensive rebound because they’ve started so close to the basket.”
Although Richmond is the worst rebounding team in the A10, the Colonials showed how dominant they can be on the glass. In its loss at La Salle, GW was narrowly outrebounded 27-26 with only one Colonial posting five or more rebounds.
Four Colonial starters finished with five or more against the Spiders, with senior forward John Kopriva and freshman forward Yuta Watanabe adding three each to round out GW’s rebounding by committee.
“We talked about rebounding before the game. [Richmond] just believes in getting their defense set, and they have a pretty good defense, so we had to try to exploit that,” Lonergan said. “I really thought the two keys to us winning that game were 43-24 on the boards and I thought our students, the Colonial Army and the crowd was tremendous by the end of the game.”
Averaging 37.5 per game, the Colonials are the third best rebounding team in the A-10, but must continue their consistency against tougher teams in order to go far in conference play this season.
