What: Men’s basketball (17-10, 7-7 A-10) vs. St. Bonaventure (14-11, 7-7 A-10)
When: Wednesday, Feb. 25 at 7 p.m.
Where: Smith Center
After a 56-48 loss at Richmond over the weekend, the Colonials will return home to take on St. Bonaventure on Wednesday with hopes of ending their longest losing streak of the season at four games.
GW has not won a game since Feb. 6 and sits in the middle of the Atlantic 10 with the Bonnies and La Salle at an even .500 in conference play. After going a perfect 10-0 in their first 10 games at home, the Colonials dropped their last two games at the Smith Center and will be hungry to regain their home-court edge.
St. Bonaventure comes to Foggy Bottom having lost three of its last four, but posted impressive wins over Davidson and No. 18 VCU earlier this month. The Bonnies will look for their second-straight win after a 70-60 overtime victory at Saint Joseph’s on Saturday.
Although neither team has a resume fit for an at-large NCAA bid, top conference spots are still up for grabs. Both teams will fight hard for an advantageous seed in the A-10 Tournament, as a championship title in Brooklyn would be their only ticket to March Madness.
The case for St. Bonaventure:
Both teams have struggled to score as of late, but the Bonnies hold a slight edge over the Colonials in offensive production. St. Bonaventure is averaging 67.4 points per game to GW’s 66.6, and 12.3 assists per game to GW’s 11.1.
Behind junior guard Marcus Posley’s team-leading 16.4 points per game, fourth-best in the A-10, two more Bonnies are averaging double figures in scoring. Posley also had two consecutive buzzer beaters in the Bonnies’ wins over Davidson and VCU.
Junior guard Dion Wright is posting an average of 13.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, followed by senior center Youssou Ndoye, who is one of two A-10 players averaging a double-double on the season with 12.1 points and 10.5 rebounds per game.
Towering at seven feet tall, Ndoye is second in the A-10 in rebounding as well as blocked shots. His team-best 2.7 blocks per game adds to the nation’s 30th-best team average of 5.0 per game.
The case for GW:
Despite a sluggish stretch for a once intimidating GW defense, the team is conceding an average of only 61.5 points per game, fourth-best in the conference. The ability and individual skill are there, but the Colonials must return to playing solid team defense to shut down the Bonnies’ offensive weapons.
The Bonnies will also be without freshman point guard Jaylen Adams, who had surgery Feb. 12 to repair a finger that had been bothering him. Adams was averaging 10 points, 1.1 steals and a team-high 4.5 assists prior to being sidelined and will miss the remainder of the season.
A struggling GW bench showed signs of improvement Saturday, as junior guard Kethan Savage had 18 points off the pine after freshman forward Yuta Watanabe got the start for the second-straight game. Watanabe, who will likely start again Wednesday night, had only two points against Richmond and must improve his production if GW wants the win.
Junior forward Kevin Larsen also looked good inside against the Spiders with 16 points and will have to continue to battle. GW’s other four starters combined for only 12 points in the loss, but expect the Colonials to shoot better at the Smith Center.
