But at Fordham on Thursday night, the Colonials’ captain racked up a career-high, game-leading 19 points, adding three rebounds and two blocks to help propel his team to a 79-59 victory on the road.
“The ball was going in the basket,” Kopriva said. “I was able to do a post move, that was my first bucket, and that always helps you get going and get a basket by the rim. And from there, I was just able to get some good looks.”
But Kopriva was only one of many who ran up the scoreboard. All five GW starters, including juniors Patricio Garino, Joe McDonald, Kethan Savage and Kevin Larsen, would finish the night in double figures.
Garino followed Kopriva with 16 points and co-led the Colonials in rebounds with eight, as Larsen would put up the same number while adding 11 points and three assists of his own.
“[When John is scoring], it takes the defense away from us,” Garino said. “And I think having five players that can score at the same time on the court is very hard to guard, so it helps everybody.”
Despite playing in front of a raucous Bronx crowd celebrating the 90th birthday of Rose Hill Gymnasium, the oldest gym in Division I basketball, GW came out with intensity early and put the Rams in an 8-0 hole in the first three minutes of the game. The start stood in stark contrast to GW’s last game at Rose Hill, a narrow win in which the Colonials looked sleepy and out of sync.
“Last year, we came out here and lacked energy from the beginning and were fortunate to get out of here with a win, so we were really focused on this game, and I thought our guys did a great job getting off to a good start,” head coach Mike Lonergan said.
In the first half, it seemed like every Colonials’ shot was falling. Led by Garino’s 11 points before halftime, the team went a whopping 70.8 percent from the field in the opening frame to the Rams’ 37.9.
GW also went 3-6 from beyond the arc in the first half, while adding 15 rebounds to take a 41-27 lead at halftime.
One of the few tense moments for the substantial visiting crowd was when freshman Yuta Watanabe fell awkwardly on his right ankle about halfway through the first half. Watanabe did not return to the game, totaling just nine minutes on the night. Lonergan described the injury as a sprained ankle.
Absent their sixth man for the rest of the game, GW’s bench was outscored 8-20, mostly due to the resurgent performance of sophomore Jon Severe, who scored 12 points for the Rams. Severe was an A-10 All-Rookie selection last year, when he averaged more than 17 points per game, but took a month-long leave of absence from the team this season and was averaging just 2.7 points entering the game.
The Colonials’ hot shooting cooled off in the second half, as the team went just 41.7 percent from the field in the frame, but the already sizable lead and 22 second-half rebounds allowed GW to pull away with the 20-point victory.
GW would finish the night outshooting the Rams 56.3 percent to 36.1 and out-rebounding Fordham 37-30. The Colonials were able to post 15 assists to their opponent’s 11, a statistic they have struggled with this season.
“We want to be consistent, and we haven’t shared the ball … We’re second to last in assists in our conference, and we focused on that tonight,” Lonergan said. “I know Patricio had two assists in the first two minutes of the game, and we got our assists up today.”
The Colonials return to the Smith Center on Saturday to take on Duquesne at 2 p.m.
