Junior guard Kethan Savage did not start Wednesday night against Davidson for the first time this season, but down by two with 16.6 seconds remaining, the ball found him once again in a crunch-time situation.
His replacement in the starting five, freshman Yuta Watanabe, was supposed to shoot the three but passed up the opportunity.
Forced to step back and take a long three that didn’t go, Savage and the Colonials were inches from a win, but fell 65-63 to the Wildcats for their third straight loss.
“We wanted [Yuta] to shoot the three and for whatever reason I guess he didn’t want to shoot it,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “But I’m not blaming Kethan for the last shot because I thought he executed the play exactly how we wanted and threw it back to Yuta. But he’s a freshman and I think he’s still a little hesitant.”
Four Colonials scoring in double digits, led by junior guard Patricio Garino and junior forward Kevin Larsen who had a dozen points each, was not enough. Junior guard Joe McDonald also recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds, and had a team-high six of GW’s 14 total assists in the loss.
The Wildcats struggled in the first half, but went 54.5 percent from the field in the second to go 40.9 percent to GW’s 36.7 on the night. Sophomore guard Jordan Barham led his team with 15 points, all coming in the second half, as guards Brian Sullivan, Tyler Kalinoski, and Jack Gibbs combined for 34 points.
“The biggest thing right now is that we are struggling to play 40 minutes on the defensive end of the court,” Lonergan said. “We were pretty good in the first half but to give up an eight point lead like that so early in the second half, that’s definitely disappointing and I think that’s just our lack of defense.”
Davidson’s three-point prowess was on display early, as the Wildcats sunk their first four field goals from beyond the arc to jump to 12-5 lead. Sullivan led Davidson with seven points in the half while senior guard Tyler Kalinoski added a half-high seven rebounds.
But the Wildcats began to lose their touch as the Colonials found theirs. Down 16-11, GW embarked on a 13-0 run topped off by a three-pointer from senior forward John Kopriva, who co-led his team in the half with eight points.
Larsen also had eight in the first, adding three rebounds and two assists to help GW secure a 31-23 at the
half. Davidson’s scoring drought left them with a 28.1 percent clip from the field in the half to GW’s 42.9 percent.
Davidson, however, responded in the second with an efficient inside game led by Barham. The Wildcats would go on a 10-0 run of their own out of the break, quickly regaining a 33-31 lead. GW’s first points of the half came off a short jumper from McDonald with about 15 min to play, and stopped the bleeding.
“[Davidson] is very disciplined and they can shoot,” Lonergan said. “You mix in [Barham] with four kids who can shoot and its tough to guard them for 35 seconds. That’s why if you give them 15 offensive rebounds that’s 15 more times you have to play defense.”
A back and forth contest the rest of the way, GW found itself down 65-63 with 21 seconds to go when Davidson called a timeout. The Wildcats inbounded to Gibbs in the backcourt, but ended up committing a backcourt violation, giving the Colonials the chance they could not capitalize on.
Despite matching the fourth-highest scoring offense in the country in three-point shooting with eight from beyond the arc, and outrebounding Davidson 41-38, Lonergan thought GW could also have been better offensively.
“I thought we shot way too many threes to be honest with you,” Lonergan said. “You don’t have to shoot when you’re open. And when you shoot them once in a while you’ve got to make them, and we’re not making them.”
Looking forward though, defense seems like it will remain the Colonials’ top priority.
“We know we have to win it with defense and we didn’t do it. That’s been a problem the last few games. We know what the problem is, we just have to fix it,” McDonald said.
The Colonials travel to Richmond for a rematch with the Spiders Saturday at 4 p.m.
