|
Posted Thursday, March 10, 10:01 p.m.
CINCINNATI-The GW men’s basketball team came into Thursday’s evening’s Atlantic 10 quarterfinal looking to take a small step toward the first conference title in program history.
The top-seeded Colonials didn’t exactly stomp all over East No. 4 seed Fordham early, but they eventually found their footing, ripping the Rams 79-63 in front of mostly indifferent fans at the U.S. Bank Arena. GW took a 33-26 lead into the break and eventually built an insurmountable double digit advantage in the second.
After the win, coach Karl Hobbs and several players sounded focused on the task at hand. If they were thinking about the final two rounds of the tourney, their play down the stretch Thursday night didn’t show it, and in the post-game press conference, they avoided talking about their NCAA Tournament hopes.
“We just don’t feel like we have the luxury to be able to look past a certain team,” said junior forward Mike Hall, who scored 18 points Thursday. “Because this is a deep league where anyone can shock anyone at any given time. We’re still up and coming, trying to learn the formula for success so we just have to be prepared for the next opponent.”
On Friday night at 8:30 p.m., the Colonials (20-7) will face the winner of Dayton and Temple, which is late game Thursday night, in the semifinals. As the second half of the GW contest wore on, the Ohio faithful began to trickle in wearing Flyers’ red, perhaps giving Hobbs’ squad a taste of what it might face tomorrow.
While Hall pointed to the fact GW is still and up-and-coming club, Thursday night’s win gave the Colonials a 20-win season for the first time since 1998-99, which was also the year they last attended the Big Dance.
Hobbs acknowledged the achievement but did not expand on its significance beyond a few thoughts. Due to Hobbs’ extreme focus this time of year, he does not seem to be worried about much more than the next day’s game.
“Last year we won 18, and this year I wanted to make sure we won 19,” he said. “Oh we have 19, now we’ll get greedy, now we want 20.”
When asked how many wins he wants now, he broke into a smile and said, “That’s a good question, 21 now.”
After a routine win, it was the most candid and light-hearted moment of the press conference.
Junior Pops Mensah-Bonsu (game-high 21 points, 9-for-12 from the field) led a well-balanced GW attack. The six-foot-nine-inch forward showed a soft shooting touch in the post, scoring with ease on lay-ins and jump hooks.
Senior T.J. Thompson kicked off his final A-10 tourney with a bang, scoring 17 points. With 13:54 remaining in the game, he hit the 223rd three-pointer of his career, tying Shawnta Rogers for the GW program record.
Hobbs said he wanted to be very deliberate with his game planning Thursday.
“Our focus today was to give T.J. confidence and let him focus on today’s game,” he said. “Anytime we had an opportunity to set a screen for T.J. (we) would.”
The Rams (13-16), which resemble a younger version of Hobbs’ squad, showed some spunk early. Freshman guard Marcus Stout (19 points) had another explosive performance. In Wednesday’s quarterfinal win over Duquesne, he scored 31 points.
Stout picked up where he left off early Thursday evening, scoring seven points in the first five minutes of the game to give the Rams an early 9-8 lead.
From there, it bounced back and forth, as no team could really pull away. With 10 minutes left before the break, Thompson caught fire, hitting a fadeaway jumper, a lay-in off a steal, and a three-pointer on three straight GW offensive possessions to give his team a 24-19 lead with 7:49 to go before the break. He and Stout each scored 12 before intermission.
The Colonials extended their lead to 28-21 after a Mensah-Bonsu floater before Stout came to the rescue again, hitting a three-pointer and a hard-driving lay-up to cut the GW lead to 28-26 with 3:37 left.
Hobbs’ squad responded, as freshman Maureece Rice’s trey and sophomore Carl Elliott’s lay-up gave the Colonials a 33-26 halftime lead.
Fordham cut the lead to six multiple times in the second but could not pull away, as GW was dominant, outscoring the Rams 18-9 during the final nine minutes of the game.
Despite topping Fordham in nearly ever statistical category, Hobbs said his team still must learn to remain relentless throughout every game, regardless of the opponent.
“We’re trying to prepare for the situation (because) it’s one game and the season’s over,” he said. “I want them to play 40 minutes that way.”
