It was a battle of GWUs, and the real GW stood tall. The good guys drubbed the Runnin' Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb 94-65 in front of a rowdy audience of school kids (GW is off this week for Thanksgiving.)
Gardner-Webb University is a small Baptist college in Boiling Springs, NC -- and being the other GW, sometimes their logo gets put on sites in place of ours. And interestingly, NBA Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore went there before transferring to Jacksonville University, where he brought the Dolphins to the 1970 NCAA championship game, where they lost to UCLA. How crazy is it that Jacksonville made the title game?
Digression aside, I wasn't able to go to this game, but it sounds like a fun atmosphere, GWHoopsters say the crowd of mostly elementary school kids were super loud and boisterous, which is great to hear. And it's also good marketing for GW -- maybe these kids will have fond memories and want to come back when they're older.
As for the game, the Colonials shot 54% from the floor and were 10/21 from three, which is a nice change of events -- in previous games, the Colonials didn't take or make many from beyond the arc. In the last four games, GW was 2/17, 4/15, 6/20 and 4/16 from deep. If this wasn't just a fluke or due to lax defense, that's a big good thing. The good guys were also solid again from the free throw line, hitting 22/27 for 81.5%.
Five Colonials scored in double figures, as Tyler Cavanaugh leading the way with 20 points, 7 boards and 3 assists. Yuta Watanabe had a solid game with 19 points on 5/7 shooting, 3/5 from behind the arc and 6/6 from the stripe. Atlantic 10 player of the week Patricio Garino added 16 on 7/8 shooting plus 5 boards, Matt Hart had 13 and Kevin Larsen had 12 with 6 boards. Joe McDonald had an interesting stat line, with 0 points but 10 boards. Here's the AP article, GW Sports article and box score.
On defense, GW held GaWe to 39.7% from the floor and 8/28 from three, much different from the Army game before where the Black Knights (shouldn't the be the Cadets?) torched GW with 12/28 from deep.
It's also kind of a nice revenge on a school, through no fault of their own, that has sometimes had its logo substituted for our own on various sports websites.
The good guys have improved to 5-0, and next face Tennessee at 9:00 pm in Brooklyn.
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