GW 74 - UDC 71 : Ugly ugly ugly

It was a scary Halloween at the Smith Center. The game was ugly throughout, with out of control play, fouls, and forced shots aplenty on both sides. It went into overtime after GW was down for most of regulation, and finally the Colonials beat the D2 school.

GW shot 35% for the game and the teams combined for 75 fouls and 95 free throws, and Rob Diggs, Cheyenne Moore, Noel Wilmore, and Damian Hollis all fouled out. Not pretty.

The Colonials didn't have much of an offense for most of the game, passing it around, forcing shots, and making out of control drives to the basket, but that might have been expected considering how many new faces there were and how much time they got. GW turned the ball over 22 times versus 11 assists.

Virginia Tech transfer Wynton Witherspoon was by far the best player for GW, playing 39 minutes, scoring 20 and collecting 9 boards. He seemed to know what was going on on the court, which was not something that could be said for the rest of the Colonials. Reece (formerly Maureece) Rice shot 2-13, scoring 11 total, and freshman Xavier Alexander scored 9 and got 8 boards. Overall GW outrebounded UDC 43-42, but it sure didn't seem like it at times.

As for the rest of the backcourt, Miles Beatty seemed a little lost, Travis King was hurt and didn't play, and Wilmore played decently, scoring 12. Johnny Lee got four fouls in five minutes.

On the frontcourt, Rob Diggs and Damian Hollis both got into foul trouble and neither played a particularly memorable game. Cheyenne Moore played out of control and fouled out in 11 minutes (granted the refs were bad, but he also committed some bonehead fouls, like trying to block a shot from behind). I like Joseph Katuka's energy, but he was out of position of defense sometimes. Hermann Opoku blocked three shots, which I hope continues, and for some reason Regis Koundjia was on the bench wearing sweats.

It's tough to predict the season based on this, but GW needs to play more in control, box out, and get an offense. There also wasn't much trapping and pressing, but maybe the youngins need time to get used to it.

--box score
--Herve's always amusing recap
--Hobbs' postgame press conference audio

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