Men’s basketball traveled to Dayton, Ohio, to play the #21 Dayton Flyers, where they fell 83-61 after struggling on the offense all night.
The loss marked the Revs’ fourth consecutive loss as they head into their February matchups. The Revs struggled in the three losses leading up to Tuesday night with abnormally poor shooting, including team-leading scorer senior guard James Bishop IV shooting a combined 13 for 49 from the field during the losing streak.
In particular, 3-point shooting inconsistency has continued to roil the Revs throughout their slump, going 16.7 percent at home against La Salle and 31 percent at Richmond against the Spiders just last week before shooting 17.2 percent from deep against Dayton.
The Revs started the game with a strong defensive showing — finding themselves down only 12-9 — 10 minutes after tipoff having forced the Flyers to miss 12 of their first 16 shots. However, GW could not capitalize off Dayton’s slow start, missing seven straight shots after redshirt freshman guard Garrett Johnson started the scoring with a 3-pointer.
Despite GW’s early defensive efforts, Dayton erupted into a scoring spree, going on a 12-0 run in just four minutes, giving them a 24-9 lead.
The Revs continued to struggle under the UD Arena lights on the offense, shooting a season-low 32.3 percent from the field including a 29.03 percent clip in the first half. Behind the arc, the Revs only made two of their 14 first-half attempts.
Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. led the team in scoring with 13 points, making five of his eight attempts for 62.5% from the field, with Bishop and redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards getting up to 10 and eight points, respectively.
The Revs’ offense remained flat in the second half as the Flyers continued to connect on shots, scoring 15 points off turnovers and 28 points in the paint, going 57.14 percent from the field in the second half and 48.3 percent overall. Dayton junior forward DaRon Holmes II proved too much to handle for the Revs’ frontcourt, scoring 25 points off 9-13 shooting while bringing down 12 boards.
Following this challenging matchup, the Revs have a week off before returning to the Smith Center to take on Rhode Island on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
