PITTSBURGH – Early in the second half, men’s basketball found itself down 13 points in a game it needed to win.
But on a snowy Wednesday night in the Steel City, GW’s late-game team defense turned ironclad.
After frustrating one of the league’s highest-scoring offenses with a new defensive scheme and embarking on a handful of key offensive runs in the final frame, the Colonials fought back to capture a three-point lead with 1:36 remaining.
That’s when senior guard Joe McDonald fed leading scorer Kevin Larsen, who sank a top-of-the-key three-ball to all but ice a crucial road decision at Duquesne. Behind an additional 23 points from its bench and a 22-for-26 clip from the line on the night, GW would go on to win 81–74, snapping a two-game skid and moving to 8-5 in Atlantic 10 play.
“I joke with the guys, because in practice I never miss the top-of-the-key threes so I feel very comfortable shooting that,” the senior forward, who double-doubled to lead the Colonials with 16 points and 12 rebounds, said. “When it left my hands I knew it was good.”
McDonald and redshirt junior forward Tyler Cavanaugh followed Larsen closely with 14 points each, the majority of which came in the second half. Cavanaugh was a perfect 8-for-8 from the line, while McDonald added a team-high three assists.
However, junior guard Matt Hart, whose parents were in attendance at the Palumbo Center Wednesday, was the guiding force in the first frame, leading GW (19-7, 8-5 A-10) with seven points and netting 11 on the night in an impressive 16 minutes on the floor.
His efforts, as well as nine points from graduate student guard Alex Mitola, helped the Colonials’ bench outscore that of Dukes by a lopsided 17 points.
“Our bench stepped up for us, they made a difference and picked us up when our starters
were struggling,” McDonald said. “Especially in the first half I think Matt [Hart] did an excellent job. I think he gained some confidence at Bonaventure. This doesn’t surprise anybody, I think he’s going to build from it.”
Despite the seven-point victory, in which the Colonials also dominated the glass 39–28 on the night, it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
After jumping to an 18–13 lead, the Colonials conceded a deflating 10-0 run to the Dukes (15-11, 5-8 A-10), who went on to shoot an unforgiving 48.4 percent clip from the field in the first half.
While the Colonials held Duquesne’s two star guards to a combined 18 points all game in a dominant victory at the Smith Center just a month ago, seniors Derrick Colter and Micah Mason combined for 24 in just the first frame and a whopping 44 by the end of the game.
“[Colter and Mason] always perform well, especially here on their homecourt,” McDonald said. “We expected it, and we just had to weather the storm.”
GW’s offense only managed to go 12-for-31 from the field in the first half and turned the ball over seven times to Duquesne’s four, allowing the home team to secure a sturdy 38–31 halftime edge.
In a game where a loss could mean the end of GW’s NCAA Tournament chances, head coach Mike Lonergan said the message in the locker room, down seven on the road, was positivity.
“We were trying to be positive because we just don’t– we haven’t been really mentally tough so you didn’t want to kick guys while they’re down, but it was a big game. They already knew that and I just was kind of disappointed in our defense,” Lonergan said. “We had the ball first play of the second half and I just said we’ve got to keep our composure and our experience is going to start paying off.”
And although the Dukes opened the second half with a 7–1 run to jump to a 13-point lead, the veteran squad eventually found its rhythm on both sides of the ball, and took the Dukes out of theirs.
Against the sharp-shooting squad, Lonergan switched up his defense to a triangle-two formation.
“The second half I think what really helped us is that we buried down defensively which we haven’t done a lot of this year,” Lonergan said. “We put in a triangle-two, first time I’ve ever done that. And I thought it worked, it helped us control tempo. [Duquesne] did hit some deep threes against us when we had some breakdowns jumping for a shot fake and a couple of other things, but it ran some clock and it allowed us to really take them out of their rhythm.”
The Colonials held the Dukes to a 13-for-28 clip in the final half, and a cold 6-for-15 showing at the line by Duquesne, who went 10-for-27 on the night, didn’t hurt.
GW on the other hand got to the line 22 times in the second half, converting 18 points from the area, to help seal the critical come-from-behind victory.
“In a lot of these losses we haven’t gotten to the line. I think Kevin did a good job establishing an inside game and we took the ball to the basket,” Lonergan, who mentioned Cavanaugh and Mitola’s late-game poise at the stripe, said. “Getting to the line really helped us.”
The Colonials return to action Sunday when they host La Salle at noon.
