This past holiday weekend, men’s basketball (6-1) recorded a third-place finish in the 2023 Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship, finishing 2-1 on the weekend.
In the sixth annual tournament, the Revolutionaries defeated Ohio (2-2) in the quarterfinals but fell to UIC (5-2) in the semifinals, placing the Revs in the third-place game, where they defeated Delaware (5-2). James Bishop IV had a stellar weekend and was named Atlantic 10 Player of the Week for his efforts and Darren Buchanan Jr. was named A-10 Rookie of the Week after his performance in the tournament, where he averaged 17.6 points per game.
The Revolutionaries tipped off against Ohio on Friday in game one of the tournament and came away with a thrilling 99-94 double-overtime victory over the Bobcats, moving the Revs to a 5-0 start to the 2023-24 season.
Bishop led the team with 28 points and redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards recorded his second double-double this season with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Off the bench, Buchanan set a career high with 25 points to start the tournament.
To start double overtime, two Edwards 3-pointers and Buchanan’s free throw brought the lead to 7, and once Ohio cut the Revs lead back down to four, redshirt freshman guard Garrett Johnson hit a three to bring it back to seven and put it out of reach for the Bobcats.
After defeating Ohio, the Revs faced the University of Illinois at Chicago Flames in the semifinals, and they fell to the Flames by a score of 89-79 for their first loss of the season.
Bishop led the way with 22 points, with the Revs delivering a 30.8 3-point clip on the evening. For the Flames, guards C.J. Jones and Isaiah Rivera led with 22 and 23 points, respectively.
A slow start hampered the Revs in this game, as they found themselves down 25-11 seven minutes into the game. A Bishop 3-point play would get GW back within five late with only 46 seconds of play left, but the sharp-shooting Flames would put it on ice to close out the Revs for their first defeat of the season.
UIC would end up falling to UNC-Greensboro in the finals of the tournament on Sunday by a score of 58-57.
In the third-place game Nov. 26, the Revolutionaries would make a furious second-half run that saw them record 56 second-half points to defeat the Delaware Blue Hens by a score of 81-71.
Down by 13 at the half due in part to the team shooting 30 percent from the field and 16 percent from three, the Revolutionaries would tie the game at 62 with six minutes to go, and a Bishop fast-break layup off a steal would give the Revs a lead that they would never relinquish. The senior guard recorded 28 points, with 16 coming in the second half. Edwards, who came off the bench for the first time all season, had 24 points, including shooting 75 percent from beyond the arc going three of four. The Revs as a team would go 21 of 27 from the field in the second half to close out their third-place finish.
This was a historic weekend for Bishop, which saw him tie Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship single-tournament record with 78 points across the three games, tying the 2017 performance of Jerrick Harding of Weber State. Bishop was named to the All-Tournament Team for his efforts.
The Revolutionaries sit at 6-1 with six nonconference games to go before the start of A-10 play. The Revs travel down to Columbia, South Carolina, to take on the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday, Dec. 1st at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network.
