Update, 9:07 p.m….Witherspoon is currently being mobbed by his teammates as the Colonials have defeated the Flyers, 57-54. Spoon hit a three-pointer with 1.7 seconds left for the win. He also bumped chests with his brother right after the buzzer sounded. This is a huge win for GW, both because they haven’t won in a month and also because Dayton is one of the top squads, talent-wise, in the league. Diggs finishes with 29 and Witherspoon 19.
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Update, 9:03 p.m….Timeout with 29.1 seconds remaining and the game tied. GW has lost shot if it chooses. Roberts just made a short jumper and the place went crazy as if Dayton were the home team. Incredible how much energy the Flyers fans have.
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Update, 8:46 p.m…Diggs just scored his career-high 26th point on a free throw as the Colonials lead 48-44. Dayton’s Kurt Huelson, one of the Flyers’ top defenders, fouled out a few minutes ago.
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Update, 8:29 p.m…Witherspoon just hit a long two-point jumper to tie the score at 37. Speaking of Spoon, Wynton’s little brother, Wesley, is in attendance tonight. He’s a senior in high school and Foggy Bottom is eagerly waiting to see if he will be joining his older brother next year. Hatchet reporter Dan Greene just went to chat with Wesley and he told Dan that he still hasn’t decided where he wants to go but that GW is still in the running. He added that he would really like to play with his brother and that when he watches GW play, he is looking most at how he would fit into the team, not necessarily the team’s record. When Dan asked him what he thought from watching this game in terms of fitting in, Wesley said he liked what he saw.
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Update, 8:21 p.m….Diggs was just called for an intentional foul after batting the ball out of Dayton’s Charles Little’s hands. Diggs tried to explain something to the referees after the play to no avail. Little hit both free throws and on the ensuing in-bound, Roberts hit a three-pointer to give Dayton a 35-33 lead. That could end up being a very big play.
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Update, 7:51 p.m…. The Flyers have cut into the lead a little bit, as the Colonials only lead by five, 30-25, at the half. Diggs has 16 points while junior Wynton Witherspoon has nine. Dayton’s Roberts also has nine and he is the Flyers’ leading scorer so far.
GW has looked pretty impressive so far, much more aggressive than in the embarrassing 80-58 loss to La Salle last Wednesday. The Colonials have also shot 48 percent from the field while Dayton has shot 32.3 percent. The crowd, meanwhile, has been almost evenly split. The Flyers’ fans have been loud and could keep its players in the game if the score stays tight.
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Update, 7:38 p.m….Diggs just had another huge dunk, this one coming on an alley-oop from senior Maureece Rice, who was actually in front of Diggs on the play. Rice had a pretty easy layup attempt but tossed the ball into the air and off the scoreboard as Diggs came flying in to finish the play. Smith Center went crazy.
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Update, 7:33 p.m….Junior Rob Diggs has 12 points in the first 12 minutes of the game, including two dunks. After the first, it looked like the forward was trying to keep a stern look on his face but just couldn’t, breaking into a big smile as Hobbs called a timeout. Following the second, on which he was also fouled, he looked really pumped up, banging his chest. The Colonials are up 21-14 with 7:20 to play in the half.
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Update, 7:05 p.m….Johnny Lee is starting tonight for the second time in his career. He got the largest cheer of the five starters. Crowd still not even close to full. There are also a good amount of Dayton fans here.
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The Colonials (5-13, 1-7 Atlantic 10) host the Flyers (16-5, 4-4 A-10). Dayton was one of the conference’s best teams in OOC play but has fallen back a bit since A-10 play began. The Flyers are without freshman Chris Wright, who has a fractured bone in his right ankle, but still have senior Brian Roberts, a preseason All-Conference first team selection. The guard averages 18.6 points a game.
Dayton spent four consecutive weeks ranked in the national polls after defeating then-No. 11/14 Louisville and then-No. 6 Pittsburgh. These are both very impressive wins but the Flyers have also lost at George Mason, at home against UMass and at Richmond and Saint Louis.
In other news, nine former GW athletes were inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame this afternoon, including former men’s basketball coach Mike Jarvis, who was at GW from 1990 to 1998 and took the program to its first, and only, Sweet 16 in 1993. He went on to St. John’s after leaving Foggy Bottom. I got the chance to talk to Jarvis after the event and he told me he wants to go back into coaching and that he hopes to be back on the court by next season. He also told me that GW is the only school of the three he’s coached (he started is career at Boston University) that he would coach at again. He and current head coach Karl Hobbs are friends (Jarvis was Hobbs’ high school coach, as well as Patrick Ewing’s) and Jarvis said he thinks Hobbs is a great coach and hopes he remains with the program for a long time. But, he added, if Hobbs ever did leave, he would have to consider returning.
The other eight inductees are women’s basketball players Lisa Cermignano and Colleen (McCrea) Maguire, who were on the 1997 Elite Eight team when they were seniors; rowers Aquil Abdullah (’97) and Linda Miller (’94); Dave Haggerty (’79) of men’s tennis; gymnastics’ Devin McCalla (’02), who is currently a graduate student and works in the athletic department’s marketing office; swimming’s Chad Senior (’97), who is in the Air Force and is leaving for Afghanistan in three days; and Marcelo Valencia (’95) of soccer. The ceremony included speeches from both the person who nominated each inductee and the honorees themselves. It was interesting to hear what each of them had to say about their time at GW. There will be another small ceremony for the former athletes at halftime of tonight’s game.
Just about a half hour until tip and the student section is almost empty. I think this just about sums up the season. In the past, Saturday night games were always the most packed, and an opponent like Dayton also always drew a big crowd. I guess students are starting to tire of seeing the Colonials lose.
