Men’s basketball (9-2) defeated Army (5-5) 75-60 Friday at the Charles E. Smith Center.
After a back-and-forth first half, the Revolutionaries used a 40-point second half to defeat the Black Knights, shooting 48 percent from the field in the final 20 minutes of play and scoring 22 points off turnovers. Leading the way offensively for the Revs was redshirt junior guard Trey Moss, who recorded 19 points alone.
Redshirt junior forward Rafael Castro recorded a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds and redshirt sophomore forward Darren Buchanan Jr. added 12 points.
The Revs struck first, winning the tossup and leading to Castro slamming home a dunk in the game’s first minute. The Black Knights evened the score in the first five minutes and eventually took a narrow three-point lead, making the game 7-4.
Moss would dominate in the first half, scoring 13 of his 19 points. He said postgame that after a slow start to the season where he averaged 8.5 points per game, it was good to start seeing his shots fall.
“I felt good,” Moss said. “Seeing a ball go through the basket (when you’re) not hitting shots early (in the) season, finally getting back in the field. It was good to see that. Just trying to keep it going.”
The back-and-forth continued, with both teams hitting shots and forcing turnovers. The Revs would capitalize on a Castro dunk and a three from redshirt freshman guard Christian Jones gave the Revs a 35-29 lead over Black Knights at the end of the first half.
The teams would trade points out of the half, with Army taking a one-point lead at the 13:39 mark. But an 11-0 run for the Revs from the 6:07 mark to the 3:57 mark turned the game into a one-sided affair, with GW leading 68-51.
Buchanan and Jones added seven points in the final five minutes to put the game in the win column for the Revs.
The Revs had ten steals in the victory, which Castro said the team had worked on in practice. In the Black Knights 103-84 loss to Cornell on Dec. 8, the team recorded only eight turnovers on the night.
“Coach told us they don’t turn the ball over a lot,” Castro said. “But we emphasized deflections in practice, so we just try to get as much as we can. It was a lot today, and they led to the steals and different things to transition.”
The Revs benefitted from Army’s inability to make three-point shots. Head Coach Chris Caputo said that the team’s commitment to the ball helped them defend against Army’s best shooters.
“The way we put two guys on the ball and how we commit to the ball, it’s hard for them to come off and just drill threes off,” Coach Caputo said.
The Revs look to continue their perfect home record against Lafayette on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in the Smith Center.
