What: Men’s basketball (6-1) vs. Seton Hall (5-1)
Where: Smith Center, Washington D.C.
When: Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.
After taking their first loss of the season Saturday to then-No. 24 Cincinnati in the Barclays Center Classic, the Colonials return home Wednesday night to take on the Pirates.
The matchup is the second leg of a home-and-home agreement between the two programs. It was the Pirates who dealt GW its first loss of the 2014-2015 campaign last November, edging the Colonials 58-54 in the Prudential Center.
GW, which received 45 votes in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll, will have a shot at redemption over Seton Hall when they host junior guard Jaren Sina’s former team. (Sina won’t play, as he is sitting out the 2015-2016 season per NCAA transfer rules.)
The Pirates enter the contest on a three-game winning streak, having taken their only loss of the year to Long Beach State, 80-77, but will face resistance against a GW squad in search of a bounce-back win.
Case for the Colonials:
GW is 4-0 at the Smith Center this season, where a raucous crowd helped them topple then-No. 6 Virginia last month, and the team will benefit from its home-court advantage against a team it barely lost to on the road last season.
A high-powered Colonials offense, which is averaging 78 points per game to Seton Hall’s 73.5, may prove to be the key against a stingy Pirates defense that is conceding just 65.0 points per game, 51st-best in the nation.
GW’s attack struggled down low in its 61-56 loss to the Bearcats, but caught fire from three-point range, knocking down a season-high 11 three-pointers on 22 attempts from beyond the arc. Senior swingman Patricio Garino leads three Colonials scoring in double-figures with a team-high 16.3 points per game, a 59.2 field-goal percentage and 1.4 steals per game.
Though GW lost the rebounding battle against a big Cincinnati team Saturday, the Colonials should hold the advantage on the glass Wednesday night. Forwards Kevin Larsen and Tyler Cavanaugh pace GW with an average of 7.9 rebounds each, while their team is averaging 40.7 boards a game to the Pirates’ 37.3.
Case for the Pirates:
Locker room turmoil soured a promising Seton Hall season last year and led to the transfers of Sina and guard Sterling Gibbs, but the Pirates return a skilled, young core and have even added a strong Atlantic 10 transfer.
Two sophomores, guard Isaiah Whitehead and forward Angel Delgado, lead the team in points and rebounds, averaging 16.8 points and 9.2 rebounds per game, respectively.
A total of four Pirates are scoring in double-figures, including an average of 13.5 points per game from sophomore guard Khadeen Carrington and 10.0 points per game from senior guard and Massachusetts transfer Derrick Gordon who has plenty of experience against GW.
Seton Hall shoots a 46.6 percent clip from the field compared to GW’s 45.5 and also has the edge in three-point shooting percentage, but has not faced a defense as strong as the Colonials’ yet this season.
If the Pirates can maintain their defensive prowess during their trip to the District and minimize its average of 15 turnovers per game to GW’s 12, they could hand their opponent its second straight defeat.
Bottom Line:
Any game in college basketball can go down to the wire and, though GW is favored at home, Seton Hall is one of the higher-RPI teams the Colonials have left on their non-conference schedule. That, plus having revenge on the mind, should help the Colonials come out with energy against the Big East foe and try to get back on track.
