Behind an impressive offensive team effort, No. 6-seed GW took down No. 11-seed Duquesne 73-55 in the second round of the A-10 Championship on Thursday night at the Barclays Center.
“I thought both teams shot the ball very well from the outside, and we did a very good job rebounding the ball,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “I’m happy for our guys. This is an important game for us.”
Junior guards Joe McDonald and Patricio Garino, and freshman forward Yuta Watanabe co-led GW with 12 points each. Junior forward Kevin Larsen padded the effort with his play down low, adding a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 15 rebounds.
The Colonials got off to a fast start, jumping to a 7-0 lead in the game’s opening minutes. Watanabe led his team with a half-high 10 points, and GW shot at a 55.6 percent clip from the field in the first half.
“Today I just tried to play hard,” Watanabe said. “I had a good game against UMass, so I had confidence. I just tried to keep shooting.”
Sharp three-point shooting was also on display for the Colonials, who were perfect on their first four attempts from long range and finished the half going 8-12. McDonald sank three from beyond the arc to follow Watanabe with nine points in the half.
Behind Larsen’s seven first-half rebounds, GW dominated the boards in the first frame, out-rebounding the Dukes 18-10. Lonergan also got his bench involved early, as eight different Colonials would put up points in the half.
Junior forward Jeremiah Jones had three of Duquesne’s five field goals from deep to guide his team with nine first-half points, but the Dukes would shoot just 40 percent from the field in the frame. Though they had just three turnovers, a weak rebounding effort and a hot GW offense left Duquesne with a 40-27 deficit at halftime.
“I think for me it’s just shot preparation,” McDonald said. “Our assistant coach, Maurice Joseph, has done a good job getting us ready and just keeping our confidence high with the shot, and he always says, ‘Be shot ready.’”
But the Dukes would not go quietly. Junior guard Micah Mason turned it on and hit a whopping five threes in the second half to finish the contest with a game-high 22 points.
While Mason was getting hot early in the second, the Colonials began to cool off. GW was ahead by as much as 15, but midway through the second half, it found its lead cut to as few as four points.
“We knew [Mason] was a big matchup. He gets hot really quick. He really knows how to shoot,” Garino said. “Even though he had 22 points, we contained the whole team.”
Up 50-46, a strong play down low by senior forward John Kopriva, who finished the night with a healthy nine points and six rebounds, earned the team’s lone fourth-year a bucket and a free throw with a drawn foul. The three-point play began an 11-point GW run that helped the Colonials weather the Dukes’ offensive onslaught.
Following the double-digit run, GW never looked back. Seven points from junior guard Kethan Savage helped GW outscore the Dukes’ bench 18-0 to round out the Colonials’ scoring as the team coasted to the 18-point victory.
“I probably should have called a timeout. We had a few 10-second violations, which was kind of shocking,” Lonergan said. “We knew they’d make a run. Basketball is a game of runs, so I’m glad we survived it.”
Despite a game that was decided by outside shooting, the Colonials outscored the Dukes 32-16 in the paint and edged Duquesne 44-30 on the glass after a strong team rebounding effort.
GW continues its A-10 Championship run against No. 3-seed Rhode Island on Friday at 9 p.m.
