President Obama and his family are attending this game. For more on that story, click here.
4:06 p.m. That’s the game. Oregon State wins 64-57 and all the players from both teams walk over to shake hands with the president and first lady. Check back later for more.
4:04 p.m. Hollis misses an off-balance three and Oregon State gets the rebound and is fouled with 1.2 seconds left. The Beavers lead 63-57 and their fans are singing fight songs.
4:04 p.m. Calvin Haynes heads to the line for the Beavers and knocks down two shots.
4:03 p.m. Oregon State knocks down a pair of free throws and then Kromah misses a three. It’s 61-57 Beavers with 13 seconds to go.
4:01 p.m. Taylor gets a steal and scores while getting fouled, misses the free throw, and then GW grabs the rebound and Kromah hits a three from the corner. Suddenly the Beavers’ lead is just 59-57 with 33.8 seconds left. Kromah is whistled for a foul.
4:00 p.m. Hollis scores and Bynes adds another bucket off a quick Oregon State turnover, making it a 59-52 Beaver lead with 42.9 seconds remaining.
3:56 p.m. After Oregon State is whistled for a loose ball foul that sends Hollis to the line, Robinson says something to Obama that makes the president and others sitting around him laugh. Hollis makes the first and misses the second and GW trails by nine with 1:25 left.
3:54 p.m. Kromah breaks away off a turnover and has his layup pinned against the glass, but Oregon State is called for goaltending and GW gets the basket. The Beavers lead 55-47 with 1:42 on the clock.
3:52 p.m. Sasha Obama appears to be waving in an effort to see her hand on the scoreboard video screen.
3:50 p.m. Hollis hits three foul shots and it’s a 55-45 Oregon State lead with 3:14 to go.
3:49 p.m. The University apparently gave Obama a Jabari Edwards practice jersey. I’m not sure why, but wouldn’t Hermann Opoku, who wears 44, have seemed to be the natural choice?
3:44 p.m. The Colonial Army has apparently been advised to stay in their seats until the Obamas exit. Oregon State leads 55-40 with four minutes left in the game, GW’s last basket coming on a three from Taylor.
3:40 p.m. Schaftenaar hits his second three of the game and Oregon State takes a 14-point lead inside the game’s final six minutes.
3:35 p.m. The Colonials are just treading water at this point, hanging around that same 10-point deficit they faced at halftime throughout the second half. It’s 47-37 Beavers with 7:18 to play and Seth Tarver heading to the line after a timeout.
3:30 p.m. Hollis gets banged around in the paint and is sent to the line, where he misses the first of two free throws but makes the second to make it a 45-35 lead for Oregon State. There’s 9:34 left.
3:28 p.m. The Beavers have put some more distance between themselves and GW, now leading 45-34 with 10:33 left in regulation.
3:23 p.m. Johnson finds Kromah in transition and Oregon State travels while bringing the ball up, suddenly making this Smith Center crowd very loud. GW trails 38-32 with 12:37 left.
3:19 p.m. Obama again calls for a travel, but this time on GW’s Bynes.
3:17 p.m. Ware knocks down the free throw to make it a 36-29 game, then Opoku, Pellom, and I don’t even know who else poke around a crazy loose ball until it gets to the other end of the floor and King is fouled while shooting. King makes the second of two shots and it’s a 36-30 Beavers lead with 15:29 to go.
3:15 p.m. Senior Kyle Boyer wins the Pita Pit Dance Contest, earning a thumbs up from Michelle Obama, who is sitting about 10 seats away from Boyer in the front row.
3:14 p.m. A nifty little play from Ware, who passes it to Pellom on the wing then rushes toward the basket and catches a Pellom pass in stride to drive and score while being fouled. Oregon State leads 36-28 and Ware will go to the line for a free throw after the break at the 15:49 mark.
3:12 p.m. Kromah just passed up an open three from the corner and instead gave it up to Bynes, who worked the ball around until Hollis missed a three. Odd to see Kromah not pull the trigger there.
3:11 p.m. Hollis slams down an alley-oop on a feed from freshman Bryan Bynes then gets a block on the other end. Oregon State leads 34-26 with 17:30 to play.
3:10 p.m. No scoring yet in the second half, but Obama just called for traveling against Oregon State in unison with one of the officials.
2:55 p.m. That couldn’t have been the type of first-half performance GW was hoping for in front of the president and his family, but the pair of threes from Kromah just before the half helped the Colonials keep the game within their reach at 34-24. Kromah leads GW with eight points in the first half, with Ware being second with five. Opoku and Edwards are tied for the team lead in rebounds with three each.
The Colonials have shot just 39.1 percent in the first half, making nine of 23 field goals, and took a while to get into any sort of offensive rhythm and didn’t even score in the game’s first four minutes. After turning the ball over 11 times in the first 14 minutes, the Colonials had just one turnover in the last six minutes of play. Taking care of the ball will likely be key to any potential GW comeback in the second half.
Also, the president has been mostly reserved during the game, occasionally clapping after an Oregon State basket or spirit program dance performance, but has really gotten into the halftime entertainment, rooting on the student who narrowly missed a half-court shot and pumping his fist when a child made a layup as part of another competition. He is reading over a piece of white paper at the moment, though I have no idea what is on it.
2:51 p.m. Another three-pointer from Kromah sends GW into halftime down by just 10. It’s 34-24 Oregon State.
2:50 p.m. Kromah knocks down his first three-pointer of rht egame and GW trails 34-21 in the final minute of the first half.
2:48 p.m. Hollis scores on a put-back then grabs a steal on the other end, after which Taylor knocks down a long jumper from the corner. The Beavers lead 32-18 with two minutes left in the first half.
2:44 p.m. Today’s Tonic trivia question: If Pellom were president, who would his vice president be? The answer is Tony Taylor, after which a graphic of the two of them in front of an American flag with “Hail to the Chief” playing in the background was shown. Michelle Obama laughed. The Beavers lead 29-13 just inside the four-minute mark.
2:37 p.m. Pellom scores on a traditional three-point play, pump-faking from the perimeter before driving and scoring on an off-balance runner while being fouled. He knocked down the free throw to make it a 25-13 Oregon State lead with just over six minutes left in the half.
2:34 p.m. There’s an official timeout at the 6:27 mark and Oregon State is leading 25-10 after Schaftenaar hits a three with freshman David Pellom charging at him. The Colonials are just 4-for-14 shooting compared to the Beavers’ 10-for-20 and have turned the ball over 11 times. They have also been out-rebounded by the Beavers 13-10.
2:32 p.m. GW’s offense has returned to stagnation. On the last possession, Taylor and redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards failed to connect on an attempted alley-oop, after which the Beavers scored to make their lead 22-8. There’s 8:15 left in the first half.
2:26 p.m. Michelle Obama is clapping along to the beat and bobbing her head as the First Ladies dance team performs during a timeout. The president clapped as well when their routine was complete.
2:25 p.m. Sophomore Aaron Ware provides some spark off the bench for GW, hitting a three from the corner and then scoring a transition layup to cut the Beavers’ lead to 16-8 at the 11:33 mark in the first half. The Colonials are beginning to take care of the ball enough to at least get shots off.
2:21 p.m. A dunk from senior Hermann Opoku finally gets the Colonials on the board, eliciting loud cheers, but GW still trails 16-2.
2:19 p.m. This is getting ugly. Oregon State leads 14-0 with less than 15 minutes before halftime.
2:18 p.m. The GW cheerleaders are giving away Domino’s pizza during a timeout, but can’t go into the sections adjacent to the president and his family, so the Colonial Army goes pizza-less.
2:15 p.m. Things haven’t been looking much different or better for the Colonials since those first few sloppy possessions. Redshirt junior Travis King missed a three on their last trip down the floor. Obama is now listening in on the Oregon State huddle during a timeout. The Beavers lead 10-0 with 15:16 left in the first half.
2:12 p.m. Head coach Karl Hobbs calls a timeout after GW falls behind 6-0 at the 16:49 mark. They haven’t been able to get much of anything going on offense, turning the ball over more often than they’ve shot it.
2:09 p.m. Presidential jitters? GW has turned it over three times in four possessions. The lone exception was when Katuka was fouled while shooting, but he missed both shots.
2:07 p.m. GW has turned the ball over on each of its first two possessions before taking a shot and trails 4-0. Also, Obama is eating popcorn.
2:03 p.m. Your GW starters: senior forward Damian Hollis, junior center Joseph Katuka, freshman guard Lasan Kromah, sophomore guard Tony Taylor and freshman guard Tim Johnson.
1:53 p.m. President Obama and his family have arrived.
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Good afternoon and welcome to our live blog for today’s men’s basketball home game against Oregon State. In case you haven’t heard, President Obama and his family are expected to attend and be seated behind the visitors’ bench with a section of Oregon State fans, though they have yet to arrive at Smith Center. Beavers head coach Craig Robinson is the older brother of first lady Michelle Obama. His team got to meet the president at the White House yesterday, where he offered them words of encouragement as they prepared to meet an undefeated GW team.
As for the basketball, Oregon State is the first-ever Pac-10 team to visit Smith Center and was picked to finish fifth in the conference before the season began. The Beavers are currently 1-3, most recently losing a close game at home to Sacramento State. Their lone victory came over South Dakota. Senior guard/forward Seth Tarver leads them in scoring and rebounding through four contests with 12.3 points and 6.5 boards per per game. Their lineup also features 6-foot-11 forward Roeland Schaftenaar, who is averaging eight points and 3.8 rebounds this season and was named the MVP of the CBI postseason tournament a year ago.
The Oregon State players are currently shooting around, while the Colonials went back to the locker room a few minutes ago. Be sure to check back shortly before game time at 2 p.m. for starting lineups as well as throughout the game for updates on both the game and its attendees.
