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 Damian Hollis scored nine points and had eight rebounds in Saturday's exhibition game. |
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GW Easily Handles West Georgia in 78-44 Exhibition Victory
Nov. 7, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC -- The George Washington men's basketball team took the first step in erasing memories of last year's struggles with a convincing 78-44 preseason exhibition victory over Div. II West Georgia University Saturday in the first basketball game at GW's newly-renovated Charles E. Smith Center. The visiting Wolves were held to just 22.8 percent shooting.
Freshman Lasan Kromah (Greenbelt, MD/Eleanor Roosevelt) was the only Colonial to score in double figures with a game-high 14 points, which included 2-for-5 from beyond the three-point arc. He was one of five GW freshmen to play significant minutes. The Colonials' sixth freshman, Daymon Warren (Richmond, CA/Worcester Academy) was sidelined with a hand injury he suffered in September.
After a poor-shooting first half where both teams displayed questionable shot selection, the Colonials took control of the game early in the second half. Leading 34-23 at the break, GW built its lead to 31 (61-30) on a Jabari Edwards (Brooklyn, NY) jumper with 9:18 left. GW's lead grew to as much as 38 (71-33) at the 4:07 mark of the second half. Edwards finished with a perfect 4-4 shooting performance but became the first GW victim of the NCAA's new point of emphasis to guard against unsportsmanlike conduct when he picked up a technical foul for celebrating an emphatic dunk. He added a pair of rebounds, and a game-high three blocked shots. GW's pressing defense created a total of 27 West Georgia turnovers which led to 20 GW points.
"We need to play with a lot of energy and enthusiasm which I think we did a better job of doing in the second half," GW coach Karl Hobbs said after the game. "We have good shooters who took some bad shots today."
Junior Joseph Katuka (Zaria, Nigeria) had a solid outing and contributed nine points on 4-7 FGs to go with eight rebounds, a pair of blocks and a steal in just 15 minutes of playing time.
Tony Taylor (Sleepy Hollow, NY) started the game at point guard with Travis King (New Haven, CT) coming off the bench to take a turn at running the offense. Freshman Bryan Bynes (Ft. Lauderdale, FL/Boyd Anderson) looked comfortable in the Colonials offense in his first unofficial college game hitting three shots, including a three-pointer, with six rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals. Hobbs played all 14 of his healthy players and even found minutes for former manager-turned-player Jeff Alston (Silver Spring, MD) and second-year walk-on Michael Conward (Miami, FL).
West Georgia was led by senior John Pringle's 10 points on 5-12 FGs and nine rebounds. Vojin Svilar added seven points but committed seven turnovers.
Both teams were plagued by poor free throw shooting and poor three-point shooting but it was the sloppy ballhandling and 27 turnovers that hampered the Wolves' efforts to get back into the game. GW had 15 steals and blocked eight Wolves shots while holding West Georgia to 22.8 percent (13-57) shooting for the game.
The contest marked GW's only preseason exhibition tune-up before it opens the 2009-10 regular season Sunday, Nov. 15, at UNC Wilmington University in a 4:30 p.m. game at UNCW's Trask Coliseum. GW is 1-0 all-time against the Seahawks after defeating UNCW in overtime in a 2006 NCAA Tournament first-round game at Greensboro, NC. The GW-UNCW game will be broadcast on WFED Radio 1500 AM and 820 AM. For more news about GW Athletics, visit www.GWsports.com.
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