Updated: Nov. 21, 2016 at 11:47 p.m.
KANSAS CITY, MO. — After trailing Georgia by six with less than 6:34 to play at the Sprint Center Monday night, men’s basketball mounted another comeback. At that point, rallies had become the norm in a game that saw a total of 12 lead changes and 10 tied scores.
Junior guard Yuta Watanabe (14p) battled late and scored five of his team’s next seven points to knot the score at 68. But Georgia, right on cue in the back-and-forth battle, responded with a two-point basket.
Freshman big Arnaldo Toro – who played 26 minutes off the bench and led the Colonials with eight rebounds – then went up for a missed layup and drew a foul with about three minutes to go.
With a chance to tie the game once more, the 6-foot-8-inch forward missed both free throw attempts – despite going 5-for-6 from the line up until that point. Up 73-68, Georgia also managed to secure two crucial offensive rebounds in a row.
The last-minute sequences highlighted a number of small mistakes that added up down the stretch for GW (3-1), which ultimately fell to the Bulldogs (3-1), 81-73, in the team’s first loss of the season.
Although the loss snaps the Colonials’ three-game win streak and sends them to the CBE Hall of Fame Classic consolation game Tuesday night, interim head coach Maurice Joseph and his team had a lot to be proud of.
“I thought that for a big part of the game we did a great job. We were neck and neck there, a bunch of lead changes,” Joseph said. “[There were] little plays here and there that I think cost us the game.”
Graduate student forward Tyler Cavanaugh (21) redshirt senior guard Matt Hart (17) combined for 38 points and nine of GW’s season-high 10 three-pointers. Hart’s 5-for-6 clip from distance was a career-high.
In their first road game of the year, the Colonials were able to commit a season-low 11 turnovers and continued to get to the line at a high rate. But the team shot a disappointing 63 percent (15-for-24) from the charity stripe.
“That’s a good team, we’ve just got to keep getting better,” Cavanaugh said. “It’s a few plays here and there – every possession matters. Whether it’s free throws or rebounds at the end, we’re right there. We’ve got a lot of young guys, we have to stress the importance of every possession.”
Georgia took an early 15-10 lead after forcing two GW turnovers in the game’s first few minutes. Five straight points from Cavanaugh tied it up briefly, before the Bulldogs went on a 10-4 run.
Hart’s hot hand got the Colonials back within striking distance. The sharpshooter finished the first half going 3-of-4 from beyond the arc en route to his season-high 17 points as GW dealt with a tough Georgia zone defense all night.
“Matt [Hart] got hot, that was big,” Cavanaugh said. “It kept us in the game, especially when a team goes zone like that. We’ve got to be able to shoot and shoot it well. We hadn’t shot it well yet this year, so it was good to see some go in, but still hurts knowing that we were one or two possessions away.”
Watanabe added seven points in the opening frame, while Toro and graduate student forward Patrick Steeves combined for six off the bench to propel GW to a 36-35 halftime edge.
The second half brought much of the same, as both teams refused to go down quietly. Smith – who finished with 4 points in 10 minutes of action Monday – put his team up 38-35 out of the gate, but GW would never capture a larger lead for the rest of the game.
The Bulldogs maintained a steadfast defensive effort – holding the Colonials to 42.9 percent from the field in both halves – and picked up their offense, going 54.2 percent from the field in the final frame.
Georgia also ended up with a substantial advantage on the glass, outrebounding a GW team that entered the contest averaging 47.3 boards per game, 39-30 on the night.
“They’re an SEC team. They’re big inside,” Cavanaugh said. “We didn’t block off, at a crucial time, at the end of the game. It cost us. We’ve just got to continue to work on that and pride ourselves on a defensive end and inside on the glass and we will win more games.”
In the game’s final minutes the Bulldogs were able to get GW into foul trouble: Hart fouled out and Watanabe and Smith each had four. Georgia hit its foul shots – and went 19-for-26 from the line overall – to solidify the win.
“This is a great learning experience for us to understand the value of every single possession throughout the course of the game,” Joseph said. “We’ve got to get there and these young guys have got to learn the value of every shot, of every screen, of every cut, of every pass.”
The Colonials will now face either UAB or Kansas in the CBE Hall of Fame Classic consolation game Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. EST.
