Men’s basketball (14-5, 3-3 A-10) fell to Richmond (14-5, 6-0) 82-74 on Wednesday night, squandering a 12-point first-half lead against the conference-leading Spiders.
With a little over three minutes left in the first, the Revs led 31-19, but a scoring run by Richmond, led primarily by graduate student guard Jordan King, brought the lead to just 1 at halftime. The Spiders’ offense proved too much to handle in the second half, scoring 49 points on 15-28 shooting.
Redshirt freshman guard Garrett Johnson led the team with 17 points on 6-15 shooting, followed by senior guard James Bishop IV, who added 15 on 4-18 shooting. GW struggled to connect on shots throughout the game, going 27-72, a 37.5 percent clip.
Two 3-pointers from Johnson helped GW out to an early 8-2 lead, but four Revs turnovers helped Richmond take a 14-13 lead with 11:52 remaining in the half. Richmond’s lead was short-lived, as a jumper from freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson returned the lead to GW’s hands.
GW was able to extend to 31-19 with three and a half minutes remaining, relying on a balanced scoring effort, with five players contributing points on their scoring run. This deficit was chiseled away by Richmond, who went on a 14-3 run to end the half.
King contributed 11 of those points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the half. He finished with 32 on the night off 11-19 shooting, including a strong 4-6 from beyond the arc.
Bishop opened the second half by sinking in a jumper, but Richmond quickly followed with a 10-0 run, reminiscent of UMass’ 17-0 run to pull away early in the second half of GW’s previous game.
GW was able to climb back to just a 43-46 deficit with 14:00 remaining but could not cool down the Spiders’ offense, which connected on a trio of 3-pointers in less than three minutes to build a 60-47 lead with just under 10 minutes left.
Hutchinson followed this Richmond run by connecting on a three of his own on his way to 13 points, a new career high for the first year.
GW could not close in on Richmond’s lead for most of the half until an and-1 layup from redshirt freshman Darren Buchanan Jr. brought the score to 74-78 with just 1:14 remaining. In the following defensive possession, GW’s defense held steady to force a missed 3-pointer. With the opportunity to cut the deficit to just 1, Johnson missed a 3-point attempt, effectively ending the Revs’ last-ditch comeback effort. Free throws from Richmond brought the game to its final score of 82-74.
Notably, the Revs struggled with ball movement, with only six assists on 27 field goals, three of which came from Bishop. Difficulty in playmaking helped accentuate GW’s shooting struggles, particularly in the second half, when the team connected on only three of its 14 3-point attempts. GW was dominant on the boards, though, outrebounding the Spiders 46 to 35. This effort was led primarily by graduate student center Babatunde Akingbola, who brought down 14, including six off the offensive glass.
The Revs welcome La Salle (10-9, 1-5) to the Smith Center on Saturday at 6 p.m., presenting an opportunity to right the ship against an Explorers team tied for the worst record in the A-10.
