George Washington University Athletics
George Washington University
HARVARD
Men's Basketball Drops 67-62 Decision to Harvard
1/15/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC -- George Washington's season-best five-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt Saturday afternoon at the hands of a pesky Harvard squad, 67-62, in a non-conference game at Smith Center. It was just GW's second loss in its last 10 outings. Harvard rallied from a nine-point, second-half deficit to hold on for the victory.
Harvard's Christian Webster, the son of former GW player Darryl Webster (`86), scored a team-high eight points before injuring himself with 5:10 left in the first half. Harvard shot just 28 percent (9-32) from the field in the opening half while the Colonials converted 48 percent (13-27).
Tony Taylor scored eight of his team-high 14 points in the first half. Taylor scored GW's final two points on the first half when he weaved through the lane and hit a circus layup with 11 seconds remaining but GW fouled Keith Wright at the other end and Wright converted 1-2 to make it 33-26 Colonials, at the break.
GW increased its lead to as much as nine at 35-26 after a Bryan Bynes' jumper to open the second-half scoring and the Colonials maintained a 4-7 point cushion midway through the second half. Bynes matched his career-high with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Trailing 48-42 with 10:04 left, the Crimson began a 13-3 run to take the lead for good at 55-51 with 7:19 showing. GW cut the deficit to two when Taylor drove the middle and banked a high floater off the glass with 2:32 left to get GW within 60-58. Taylor banked in another acrobatic hanging layup with 59 seconds left to make it 62-60 Harvard and the Crimson converted 3-4 free throws over the final minute to hang on.
Joseph Katuka scored 10 points before picking up his fifth foul with 1:08 left in the game. The top free throw shooting team in the country going into Saturday's game, Harvard outscored the Colonials, 20-10, at the line despite missing on eight attempts.
Harvard (12-3) was led by Laurent Rivard and Oliver McNally each with 16 points. All of Rivard's points came in the second half. Kyle Casey added a 10-point, 15-rebound double-double. Casey's 15 caroms was the most rebounds by a GW opponent this season.
GW (10-7) next travels down I-95 to face Richmond (13-5, 2-1 A-10) in an A-10 Conference game Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Robins Center. The GW-Richmond game will be broadcast on 1500 AM and 820 AM as well as at FederalNewsRadio.com. Live stats will be available at GWsports.com.
