The Colonials are off to a good start, winning two road games and crushing UMBC in the home opener, 94-51. The team dominated the Retrievers from the beginning, scoring 9 and forcing 4 turnovers before UMBC even took a shot. Freshman Lasan Kromah had a monster first half, scoring 20 in just ten minutes, including four treys in a row over less than 2 minutes, driving the Smith Center crowd wild. He was 6/9 from three for the game.The team played the GW ball of old, forcing a lot of turnovers and converting them (27 points off 15 turnovers), getting good transition play and lots of alley-oops, and playing harassing, trapping defense. UMBC shot only 30.6% for the game. All around, it was a great time, especially the first half.
Everybody contributed, with every non-walk on player scoring. The team had 8 blocks and outrebounded UMBC 57-27, with David Pellom leading with 11 rebounds. He added 2 blocks, while Hollis had three. Jabari Edwards played well on both sides, and Kromah had a nasty block from behind, thanks to his speed. The entry passes were good, Tony Taylor controlled the game well, and Joseph Katuka had some nice post moves.
Like the West Georgia game, GW overmatched the opponent, but this time the Colonials had a better idea of their roles on the court. Something else nice to see was that Hobbs had a couple nice moments where he took players aside and taught them something (like with Opoku) rather than yelling at them or yanking them. I wonder if that's due to assistant coach Brian Ellerbe's involvement.
The new Smith Center looks great, and they have cool new player intros. The atmosphere was great too -- the students were loud, they turned off the lights in the upper seats, which was cool, and it was just a good energy. Hobbs even thanked the students in a letter to the Hatchet. Food-wise, I tried the chicken sandwich, which was pretty solid.
Here's the box score and game articles from the Post and two Hatchet articles.
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