But on Tuesday, with a 67-50 dismantling of the University of Central Florida, the Colonials bounced back from a disheartening loss at DePaul, one that lost the team its national ranking, with their first dominant road win of the season and closed out their non-conference slate at 11-2.
“I think it was really important for us to get a win, the last game, especially a road win,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “Because we’re getting that reputation we’re not good on – we’re so good at home sometimes you get a reputation you’re not good on the road.”
The Colonials did it by punishing the Knights (6-5) inside, and with lockdown defense that held the Knights to 35.4 percent shooting from the field.
GW altered its pick defense against UCF, going over screens instead of under, and got help around the perimeter from bigs Tyler Cavanaugh and Kevin Larsen, who successfully hedged out without losing their matchups, which were, at times, rather interesting. The UCF frontcourt features both 7-foot-6 freshman Tacko Fall and 6-foot-10, 325-pound junior Justin McBride at center.
“It was like the best of both worlds,” Larsen said. “You go from a 7-6 guy to a 300-plus guy, it was fun. It was something new, I never tried that before and both of them are very good players so it was fun. Fun matchups.”
Ultimately, though, it was not about matchups but about team defense: Lonergan said that both Cavanaugh and sophomore guard Paul Jorgensen, at least in the second half, had their best defensive games of the year. He was also awed by a weak-side block from Yuta Watanabe, who had three rebounds to go with five points but was boxing out more consistently than in the past two games. Watanabe was also one of seven Colonials to record a steal, helping GW score 15 points off 14 UCF turnovers.
Many of those came off the fast-break, where GW outscored UCF 15-0. Patricio Garino, the mastermind of an array of driving layups, led all scorers with 17 points and was followed by Larsen and Cavanaugh, who added 14 and 11 points, respectively, to fluff up GW’s 44-20 margin in points in the paint and 51.8 shooting percentage from the field.
“We have really good big guys so you don’t want to run too much, but when it’s there in transition, especially in the second half [when] Paul [Jorgensen] was playing well, we try to push the ball,” Lonergan said. “And what it does is it kind of tires out the other team. Especially them, they were bigger than us.”
Cavanaugh, who left the DePaul game in the second half limping after twisting his left ankle, played 31 unencumbered minutes. He also tied Joe McDonald, who had a season-high five assists, with a game-high eight rebounds to help the Colonials outrebound the Knights 37-25.
Even McDonald, often the most methodical and plodding player on any court he is on, was running. The bench went wild when McDonald drove into the paint through contact and tossed in a floater while falling down, drawing a foul. He connected the extra point to make it 56-37 with 10:21 to play.
GW looked determined to make a statement, having quickly run up the score in the second half after leading narrowly, 34-31, at halftime. UCF scored just 19 points in the second half, but Lonergan did not sub in his bench until there were less than two minutes left on the clock.
“I think we were all pretty embarrassed about what happened in Chicago,” Garino said. “I think we just wanted to get that out of our minds and just get some revenge over here.”
“I’m feeling great now,” Garino added. “I think this is the greatest way to finish the year, with a victory away from home.”
Larsen was similarly pleased, calling it “always nice to prove the haters wrong.”
This chapter of the season ended well for the Colonials, but they now begin a new one with a blank slate. GW’s next game comes back at home when the team opens Atlantic 10 play against Fordham on Jan. 3 at 7 p.m.
