Men’s basketball (19-11, 8-9 Atlantic 10) defeated La Salle (12-17, 4-12) 71-60 on Saturday night in their last home game of the season.
Redshirt junior forward Rafael Castro led the game with 22 points and 17 rebounds as he notched his 13th double-double this season, the most by a Revolutionary since 1994. The game was marked by a 17-4 GW run to end the first half, giving the Revs a comfortable cushion despite scoring troubles to open the second.
“He’s a great player,” Head Coach Chris Caputo said of Castro. “He has a big, big motor. He’s obviously got such great measurables: big, long, athletic, loves basketball. Great in terms of his mental, emotional maturity.”
The Revs were aided by double-digit efforts by both starting sophomore guard Trey Autry and redshirt freshman guard Christian Jones, with 13 points each.
The game started with both teams unable to get an edge, trading baskets until Autry hit a 3-pointer to push GW ahead 11-8. Redshirt sophomore forward Darren Buchanan Jr. then passed to a cutting Castro for an easy layup to kick-start a 7-0 run.
The Revs managed to push the run further with a Buchanan layup, forcing an early Explorers timeout. GW’s defense managed to get six consecutive stops on La Salle’s offense, forcing them to be scoreless for over two minutes.
Following the timeout, La Salle came out punching with graduate student forward Jahlil White’s three from on top of the key to dampen GW’s run and bring the score to 17-11, but it did little to stifle the Revs’ blazing offense. Sophomore guard Jacoi Hutchinson hit a contested bomb from deep to continue the onslaught, bringing the lead to 22-11. La Salle responded to the three with two straight threes of their own and starting an 8-0 run, forcing the Revs to take a timeout themselves.
GW fought back following the timeout, starting with a Castro dunk to stifle the Explorers’ momentum. The Revs managed to force three turnovers which led to easy buckets, including a thunderous alley-oop from Castro forcing an 11-2 run.
With a deep contested 3-point shot by Autry, the Revs finished the period on a 17-4 run with a 17 point lead.
Castro dominated the half, finishing with a near double-double: 14 points and seven rebounds on 6-7 shooting by halftime. Caputo said Castro highlights the type of play that gives the team success.
“Rafael is doing points, rebounds, assists, steals,” Caputo said. “You know, just trying to find ways to get guys that are two-way players that play the whole game.”
La Salle quickly flipped the switch to start the second half, opening the period on an 8-0 run as GW failed to put points on the board for over four minutes. The Explorers knocked down three 3-pointers in the first five minutes, out of 12 on the night. Two more 3-pointers brought the score to 48-46 with ten minutes left.
“I knew they would come back,” Caputo said. “It’s a difficult matchup for us. The way they play is difficult for our team, and I was just happy that we were able to hang on, make some good plays down the stretch.”
The team lost their first matchup against La Salle 73-67 on the road in early February.
Castro responded with a personal 5-0 run to bring the GW lead back to seven. After La Salle responded with a 3-pointer, Jones and Autry answered back with a layup and three free throws, respectively, to go back up nine.
GW was able to keep a comfortable lead to close out the final minutes and the win was punctuated with a corner 3-pointer from graduate student forward Sean Hansen to bring the team up 67-58 with 92 seconds left.
Hansen, along with graduate student guard Gerald Drumgoole Jr., senior forward Keegan Harvey and senior guard Laziz Tapilov were honored pregame as part of Senior Night festivities, commemorating their final Smith Center game.
“You come into the year, time moves fast,” Drumgoole, who transferred to GW this spring from Delaware, said. “You can’t take every moment for granted. I just think it’s going to war with these guys, whether it be practice, traveling, playing away games, the tournament we had.”
With the win, GW moves into eighth in A-10 standings, where they are on track to have a bye in the first round of the upcoming Atlantic-10 Championship at the Capital One Arena. They play last-place Fordham in the Bronx, New York, on Wednesday but have the day off next weekend, when all 14 other A-10 schools will be playing their final games.
Caputo said leadership and culture speaker Brian Kight will visit the team to talk about strategy and mentality next weekend in addition to practice and rest.
“We probably need a little bit of rest,” Caputo said. “We could use it. We could use having maybe two good practices.”
