Colonials clobber Bonaventure, fall to Xavier

GW is now 7-8 on the season and 1-1 in conference after clobbering St. Bonaventure 78-59 and then falling to Xavier 71-56. I'm still pretty optimistic though.

Coach Mike Lonergan started 4 freshmen and Isaiah Armwood against the Bonnies, and it worked -- the good guys shot 57% from the floor and 6/12 from three. Lasan Kromah had a good game after struggling for part of the season, scoring 14 points on 5-5 shooting. It was a big win, and augured well for the rest of the year. Here's the GWSports recap and box score.

However, that year continued with Xavier, who despite their 8-6 record coming into the game always seem to have GW's number. The game was on CBS Sports TV again, which was cool, but unfortunately wasn't very fun to watch. X got up early and kept ahead, eventually ballooning to the end. It seemed that GW couldn't get any good shots off, and even when they could, the shots didn't drop -- only 38% from the floor. Here's the recap and box score.

Some silver linings though: Lasan Kromah had a second-straight good game, with 14. It seems like he's getting out of his funk and at times he was aggressive driving and smart, which is his best combination. In addition, I have so far found nothing I don't like about the freshmen duo of Kevin Larsen and Patricio Garino. I'm really looking forward to those two over the rest of this season and the next three years. Both have really smooth games, with Larsen making great moves in the paint and Garino just doing pretty much everything well. Isaiah Armwood has also been great, with more blocks than Tetris -- 49, which is ninth in the country. It also seems that Lonergan has pretty much set how much time everybody is getting.

And some not so silver linings: I'm no coach, but I would like to see Nemanja Mikic get some screens and open looks from three. He's been a virtual non-factor this season and GW has been shooting poorly from three. In addition, it sometimes seems that the guys take a lot of crazy, ill-advised shots, but maybe that's just what the defense is giving them. I'd also like to see some more emotion out there, it seems like only sometimes are the guys really pushing hard.

That said, I'm still generally pretty happy. GWHoopsters less so, as many are thinking GW will win 5 conference games, but I see a bit more than that. 

So while GW might not win a million games this season, I'm still looking forward to the rest of the year. And Wednesday the good guys face Temple at the Smith Center! More on that soon.

And here's the Storify from the @colonialhoops Twitter and others about the two games: