Men’s basketball (15-6, 4-4 Atlantic 10) had a strong second half en route to a 75-66 victory over Richmond (7-14, 2-6 A-10) Wednesday night.
The game was the Revs’ second-straight win and only their second triumph against Richmond in the past 11 matchups. Richmond was the first repeat opponent GW faced this season after falling victim to a Spiders comeback 66-61 win on New Year’s Eve.
Redshirt junior forward Rafael Castro stuffed the stat sheet, coming away with 21 points and 16 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. In the second half, seemingly any time a shot from a Rev bounced off the rim, Castro’s touch floated the ball in for two points. He said the ability of other GW players to find him in the right situation contributed to his success.
“I give kudos to my teammates,” Castro said postgame. “They find me when they can. I just make the right play.”
The opening minutes were slow, with GW only getting on the board after a dunk from Castro 2:30 in, but the Revs held their arachnid opponents scoreless until the 15:19 mark when graduate student guard B. Artis-White buried a wide-open three from the corner. The Spiders, who came into the game 339th in the country in 3-point shooting, went 8-19 from beyond the arc in the first half, though GW only let them make two 2-pointers.
Artis-White’s shot sparked a 12-2 Richmond run, halted by a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Trey Autry at 11:40, GW’s first field goal in about five minutes. A fast-break dunk from Autry moments later put the Revs back in front 13-12 in a contest that remained close the rest of the first half.
Just before half, graduate student guard Gerald Drumgoole Jr. took a hard fall on his back. But he checked back in just over a minute later and nailed a top of the key three.
“As soon as I got in, I was just on the court ready to make the shot, ready to shoot it, and it so happened to go in today,” Drumgoole said after the game.
GW could only carry a 33-32 lead into halftime due to self-imposed mistakes. Richmond took the open 3-pointers GW gave them, connecting at a 42.1 percent clip in the first 20 minutes. The Revs turned the ball over 12 times, just under their season average of 12.2 heading into the game, which Richmond took advantage of to the tune of 10 points. GW, for their part, scored 13 points off seven turnovers by the Spiders.
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Head Coach Chris Caputo said postgame that he wasn’t thrilled about the high turnover numbers at the half.
“You know, I kind of screamed,” he said.
Each team spent their fair share of time at the free-throw line, with the Revolutionaries committing eight fouls and Richmond nine in the first half alone.
The second half was a different story for GW, with the Revs only committing two turnovers the last 20 minutes. Drumgoole paved the way for the breakaway — Revolutionary given the team’s past struggles with Richmond — nailing two threes right out of halftime. The Delaware transfer had been in a slump, shooting no better than 12.5 percent from three in his past five games, but poured on 19 points on 5-11 from beyond the arc against the Spiders.
“This past couple stretches of games haven’t been my best shooting games, but as long as my teammates and coaches believe in me, you know, the outside noise, I just try to quiet it down as much as I can and just focus on the next right play,” Drumgoole said.
GW rode that momentum to a 42-34 second half and an ultimate 75-66 triumph. Caputo said that sophomore guard Jacoi Hutchinson’s control of the ball helped cut the number of turnovers down in the second half, dropping from 12 to two.
“They’re shooting the ball well, that’s a bad recipe for a game like this,” Caputo said. “And then I thought our response was terrific in the second half, only two turnovers, tremendous defensive effort, great shot diet. So yeah, really happy about our response.”
Caputo said he credits GW’s continued success to the entire team being willing to do whatever it takes to win each night, even in the face of unexpected hardships, like losing redshirt sophomore forward Garrett Johnson or the continued struggles of redshirt sophomore forward Darren Buchanan, Jr., who didn’t attempt a field goal in the game.
“You get hardened by the bad things that happen and then you start to understand what’s really important,” he said. “And I think we got a group that is there right now.”
The Revs will head north to Philadelphia to challenge the La Salle Explorers (11-10, 3-5 A-10) Saturday, with tipoff set for 2:30 p.m.