Dubbed the 20th best program in the country just a day earlier, men’s basketball headed out on the road to visit a 5-6 DePaul team that had lost three-straight entering Tuesday’s matchup.
The Colonials, who converted on only a third of their 51 total field goal attempts, were overpowered by a tenacious offensive effort that helped its Big East opponent to an 82–61 upset.
“Give them credit,” head coach Mike Lonergan said. “But we really played pretty bad defense. We had no energy to start the game. I was worried about that coming out, we knew that this was a big opportunity for them to beat what I thought was a pretty good team at home and we just came out with no energy.”
Junior guard Billy Garrett’s game-high 20 points led three other Blue Demons who scored in double-figures while DePaul shot an impressive 55.4 percent from the field and hit eight from deep.
“Our plan was to play man-to-man and keep them out of the paint,” senior forward Kevin Larsen said. “That wasn’t working and so we tried everything possible but they had their confidence going. It was a tough night defensively.”
Meanwhile, GW’s attack had one of its worst games of the year. The Colonials shot a season-low 33.3 percent from the field, missed 18 three-point attempts and were outrebounded 37–26.
Larsen earned his fourth double-double of the year with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and junior forward Tyler Cavanaugh, who left the game midway through the second half after rolling his left ankle, added 14 of his own, but the squad’s guards were almost non-existent throughout. A team spokesman said after the game that Cavanaugh is day-to-day.
“I thought when we went inside good things happened but we kept going away from that and we kept settling for three-pointers,” Lonergan said. “And that was not the right thing to do because we didn’t make threes all night and that kept us from making any kind of run throughout the whole game.”
Senior guard Joe McDonald did not score, while senior swingman Patricio Garino was
held to just four points, all from the free throw line.
“They tried to play like a pack-line Virginia defense and made it pretty hard for us to drive, and we weren’t hitting shots today, I don’t think we’re ever going to shoot this badly again,” Larsen said.
Meanwhile, everything seemed to go the home team’s way early on, as DePaul hit nine of its first 11 field goals and led by as much as 19 in the frame after a 10–0 start. Five Blue Demons contributed six or more points as DePaul shot 53.3 percent from the field and hit 6-of-13 from deep.
Larsen and Cavanaugh kept GW in the game, combining for 24 of the team’s 29 first half points despite a 33.3 percent clip (8-of-24) from the field. Twelve of the pair’s points came from the free throw line.
But even after sophomore swingman Anthony Swan knocked down GW’s only three pointer just before halftime, the Colonials went to the lockers down 41–29.
The Colonials closed the gap a few times in the second half but never enough to get their deficit to single digits. Sophomore guard Paul Jorgensen provided a spark off the bench, netting nine points, while graduate student guard Alex Mitola added five, but DePaul’s offense remained relentless.
Any time GW showed signs of life the Blue Demons were able to silence momentum with a bucket of their own, maintaining their cushion.
“Larsen was the only guy that you could say played well for us at all,” Lonergan said. “Two of our best players were a combined 0-for-13 from the field. It’s kind of a perfect storm, they’re making threes, we’re playing lousy and we just had no energy so give them credit.”
The Colonials conclude their two-game road stint next Tuesday in Orlando against UCF at 7 p.m.
