Men’s basketball defeated North Carolina A&T 85-80 in the Charles E. Smith Center Tuesday, notching their third win of the season.
The Revs built a 14-point lead with just over three minutes left in the first half, led by redshirt junior forward Rafael Castro, who had ten points and 11 rebounds in the first half alone — his second double-double of the year. GW was able to fight off a second-half comeback from the Aggies, who built a 3-point lead, with redshirt sophomore forward Darren Buchanan Jr. going on a 10-point scoring spree to help give GW the lead back.
“I think attacking the rim was definitely the game plan,” Castro said. “As long as we keep attacking the rim at the rate we’re doing, it’s going to make it easier for the 3-point shooters.”
GW opened up the game with a 13-6 lead in just over five minutes, with Castro making his presence felt early and often. With under eight minutes left in the half, he stole a pass from NC A&T and dribbled down the whole court, punctuating the play with a posterizing dunk over an Aggie defender, sending the Smith Center crowd to its feet and bringing the GW lead to 30-19.
“What’s going through my mind is ‘You’re a big guard,'” Castro, who is 6’11” said of the play. “That’s what I’m telling myself.”
A putback layup from Buchanan with under four minutes left in the half brought the Revs’ lead to 39-25, their largest of the night. The Aggies answered back with six consecutive points to cut GW’s lead back to eight.
“We were in that little spot up 14, where I thought, ‘Man, we have gotten off to a great start,'” Head Coach Chris Caputo said. “And we just couldn’t sustain it off those misses in the second half.”
GW led 44-33 at halftime but the Aggies quickly clawed back at their lead, scoring eight unanswered points in just two minutes to open the second half, bringing the score to 44-41. A dunk from Castro put the Revs on the board in the second half, but NC A&T immediately responded with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to two points.
“I thought a couple of pretty good looks from us that just didn’t go in got them going,” Caputo said. “And they didn’t really stop going until that stretch where we were able to take over and win the game.”
An Aggie and one gave NC A&T the lead with just over five minutes into the half, and the two teams engaged in back-and-forth scoring for about ten minutes. With five minutes left, two pairs of free throws from Buchanan on consecutive Revs possessions gave GW a 69-66 lead. Buchanan finished the game with 20 rebounds and 11 rebounds, his third double-double of the season.
“We’re just not a spacing 3-point team where we can just hoist up 40 threes,” Caputo said. “We’re going to need to dominate the paint.”
The Revs scored 48 points in the paint compared to 28 points from the Aggies. But, they knocked down just seven 3-pointers off 25 attempts, while the Aggies were 8 of 20. Entering the game, GW was last in the A-10 in 3-point percentage and 3-pointers per game, with 22 percent and 5.5, respectively.
The Revs continued to build on their lead as the clock ticked down, but two late 3-pointers from the Aggies’ junior guard Landon Glasper brought them back to a 6-point margin, although successful free throw shooting helped to fend off a late-game comeback. The team finished 16/18 from the line over the game, including 8/9 from sophomore guard Jacoi Hutchinson, who finished with 18 points in the night.
“It’s a free shot, the easiest shot in the game,” Hutchinson said. “So we gotta make every one of those count.”
GW welcomes NJIT to the Smith Center for their next game on Monday.
