Men’s basketball (15-15, 4-13 A-10) defeated St. Bonaventure (18-11, 9-8 A-10) 86-75 on Wednesday night in the Smith Center, ending their 12-game losing streak.
The team had gone nearly two months without a win, their last victory coming in a mid-January affair against George Mason. The team has one contest, a road game at Duquesne, to try to seal a winning record before the Atlantic 10 tournament.
“I think the one message is, when right, there’s nobody we can’t beat in the league,” Head Coach Chris Caputo said after the game. “We’ve got some good wins here.”
Senior guard James Bishop led the game in scoring with 27, off an efficient eight for 13 shooting, including five for nine from beyond the arc. The team honored him as well as graduate student center Babatunde Akingbola and graduate student forward Antoine Smith Jr. pre-game as part of a Senior Day celebration.
After four years at GW, Bishop is third in program history in points scored and has cemented himself as a school legend.
“It was good to get back on track,” Bishop said. “More importantly, just getting momentum going into Brooklyn.”
Bishop started the scoring with a deep stepback 3-pointer. Both teams started out hot from 3-point territory, with the Revs and the Bonnies knocking down four each by seven minutes into gameplay.
A 3-pointer from senior guard Moses Flowers brought the Bonnies to a 20-13 lead with 12:55 left, but freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson responded with an and-1 and a 3-pointer with a personal 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 1 in just over a minute.
“Even though we were on a losing streak, we tried to keep the same process, working every day,” Buchanan said.
The teams largely maintained a back-and-forth first half, but four straight free throws from St. Bonaventure, two coming off a technical foul on Akingbola, brought them to a 42-34 lead with just seven seconds left.
Freshman guard Trey Autry ended the half with a deep 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 5. Autry’s make was the eighth GW 3-pointer of the half, off of 15 attempts — a 53.3 percent clip.
“He deserves some credit,” Caputo said on Autry. “He’s an emotional leader even though he’s a freshman. He’s such a positive, good guy.”
Two GW fast-break dunks off steals, one from redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan and one from Hutchinson, gave the Revs a 48-46 lead four minutes into the half, their first time ahead since 7:31 remaining in the first.
Flowers was able to respond, however, knocking down another 3-pointer on the next possession to put his team back on top.
Both teams exchanged scores for a few minutes, until a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Max Edwards with 9:28 remaining gave GW a 61-59 lead — one they wouldn’t squander. Edwards finished with 19 points off the bench, off six for 10 shooting.
9 straight points from Bishop, Edwards and Autry then brought GW to a 9-point lead with seven minutes left in the game.
The Revs’ strong second-half defense proved key to hold the Bonnies off in the final minutes. St. Bonaventure shot only 41.4 percent from the field in the second half, compared to 56.6 in the first and GW’s 63.6 in the second.
“We’re challenged defensively,” Caputo said when asked about the defense’s second-half success. “This is not a big secret. Just a little bit small in the backcourt. So when you’re like that, the effort level has to be so high.”
A 3-pointer from Edwards with 2:42 left gave GW an 82-65 lead, their largest of the game. Two free throws from Bishop with 44 seconds left were his last Smith Center points. He earned a standing ovation from the crowd as he left the game for the final time in front of the Buff and Blue crowd.
The team travels to take on Duquesne (19-11, 9-8 A-10) at 2 p.m. on Saturday before traveling to Brooklyn, New York, for the A-10 tournament.
