Posted 11:00 a.m. Jan. 18 – Every time the Colonials made a run, the Xavier Musketeers had an answer. Xavier jumped out to a quick 10-point lead at the Smith Center Thursday night, and GW couldn’t get any closer than six point the rest of the way.
Led by sophomore Romain Sato’s 23 points, Xavier beat GW 71-63 to extend its winning streak to seven games.
“I thought the difference in the game was allowing them to start the game off 10-0,” Colonials head coach Karl Hobbs said. “So, from that point on it changed up our whole game plan.”
While the Colonials were able to slow down 20-2001 A-10 Player of the Year David West, who finished with 12 points and 7 rebounds, they were unable to stop Xavier’s other two big scorers, Sato and Kevin Frey (13 points and 11 rebounds).
The Colonials were led by Chris Monroe, who scored 32 points on 11-for-21 shooting, and Tamal Forchion, who scored a career high 17 points hitting six of nine shots from the floor. Besides them, the Colonials presented very little offense.
“When you go against a great player like Monroe, it’s hard to have answers for him,” Xavier head coach Thad Matta said.
Monroe and Forchion combined to score 36 of the Colonials’ 38 points in the second half, making 17 of GW’s 20 field goals in the game. The rest of the Colonials combined to shoot 3-for-27 from the floor.
After a Monroe free throw cut the lead to seven, 39-32, with just over 16 minutes remaining, Xavier (12-3, 4-0 A-10) went on a 10-0 run over a three minute stretch, capped off by a Sato dunk.
GW (10-6, 3-2) chipped away at the Musketeers lead over the next 11 minutes, and trailed by seven, 65-58, with just over two minutes remaining in the game.
The Colonials took advantage of Xavier’s foul trouble to cut the lead to seven. Sato had to sit down after picking up his fourth foul of the game half way through the second half. West joined Sato on the bench two minutes later.
West checked back in the game with just under six minutes remaining, but fouled out a minute later when Jaason Smith drew a charge against West.
Forchion fouled Sato with two minutes remaining in the game and GW down 65-58. Sato missed both free throws but grabbed his own rebound after the second miss and put it back to give the Musketeers a nine-point lead with two minutes remaining in the game.
“Sato got fouled and he misses the free throw and we don’t get the rebound. And then he converts,” Hobbs said. “I thought that was a back-breaker.”
GW was unable to get any closer than eight in the final two minutes.
Xavier jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead to start the game after Sato his second three-pointer three minutes into the game.
GW cut the lead to six, 19-13, when Marquin Chandler put back a missed jumper by T.J. Thompson halfway through the first half.
But just as the Colonials were able to cut the lead to six, Xavier scored eight straight points over the next four and half minutes to go up by 14.
The Colonials again cut the lead to seven on a Forchion dunk, but Xavier provided more answers. The Musketeers increased the lead to 11 points with one minute remaining in the half and took an eight-point lead into the locker room, 33-25, after three GW free throws.
GW goes on the road to take on another A-10 powerhouse, St. Joseph’s (10-4, 4-0), in Philadelphia Saturday afternoon and Massachusetts (6-8, 0-3) in Amherst Wednesday night before returning home to host Rhode Island (4-10, 0-3) on Jan. 26.
