Unfortunately for the Colonials, Larsen and Savage’s matchups on defense nearly did the same, as TJ Cline scored 16 and ShawnDre’ Jones scored 14 in GW’s 56-48 loss to the Spiders.
“Kevin and Kethan have to become better defenders for us to win games, they’re two of our best players and their guys are scoring too much,” head coach Mike Lonergan said.
On the offensive end, both players were rolling. With 2:23 to play, Savage cut Richmond’s lead to four with a drive to the basket and a layup. The Colonials (17-10, 7-7 Atlantic 10) had made seven of their last nine shots while Richmond had made just one of its last five.
But as the seconds ticked by for the Colonials to get the ball back, GW was called for four straight fouls entering the final minute, the fourth sending Jones to the line where he hit two free throws to make it 52-46.
Savage got to the line with 30 seconds to play and made two shots, but Trey Davis threw an outlet pass up the court to Jones who scampered to the net unguarded for a layup.
GW couldn’t score on the next possession and, after fouling Terry Allen, head coach Mike Lonergan took the starters out of the game with 6.8 seconds left and a six-point deficit.
The loss was GW’s 10th of the season and fourth in a row, pushing the Colonials to .500 in A-10 play at 7-7.
“Our starters, they lapse on defense. We show them on film, but we have letdowns and those are hard for us to overcome,” Lonergan said. “We have the talent to play defense but I haven’t been able to do a good enough job getting all the guys in that locker room to understand it.”
Richmond wasn’t perfect: the Spiders shot under 39 percent from the field and 27.3 percent from beyond the three-point line, and Patricio Garino held Richmond’s leading scorer Kendall Anthony to nine points on 4-16 shooting.
Still, Richmond hit just enough baskets to come away with the win while getting 28 extra possessions from 14 GW turnovers and 14 offensive rebounds. The Spiders, owners of the worst rebounding margin in the A-10, outdid the Colonials off the offensive glass by five.
“That’s the only way we’re going to beat Richmond is if we dominate them on the glass, because we’re not going to win a three-point shooting contest with them,” Lonergan said.
The Colonials did use their size advantage to block six shots, but Richmond head coach Chris Mooney’s fears about getting killed off the boards didn’t come true. GW won the rebounding battle by just one overall, 32-31.
And while Richmond was getting extra shots, the Colonials struggled to find each other, recording just five assists in the game as the Spiders matchup zone stuffed up the middle. Besides Larsen and Savage, who seemed to have gotten his shot back in his second game coming off the bench, no one scored more than four for GW.
“I thought [Savage] was going to do this last game,” Lonergan said. “That’s the bright spot, that we got Kethan back, but Patricio and Joe really struggled tonight. We’ve got to get all the juniors playing well.”
The Colonials next chance to regroup comes Wednesday at 7 p.m. when St. Bonaventure visits the Smith Center.
