George Washington University
2-0
Siena
1-1
Men's Basketball Tops Siena, 77-75
11/15/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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WASHINGTON -- In a thriller at the Charles E. Smith Center on Tuesday night, after 14 lead changes and four ties, the George Washington men's basketball team came away with a 77-75 win over the Siena Saints.
Jaren Sina came up huge for GW with his team-high 16 points, all of which came in the final 8:17 of the second half. Sina canned a pair of triples and drained all six of his free throw attempts to rally the Colonials back from their biggest deficit of five.
Neither team led by more than eight in the contest, while each team led for at least 15 minutes. Fittingly in the closely contested contest, each half was decided by a single point in GW's favor.
With GW (2-0) trailing 56-51 nearing eight minutes to play, Sina got on the board with a floater in the lane to narrow the Saints' lead to three. After a Siena (1-1) bucket, a Sina three at the 7:56 mark pulled the Colonials within two and ignited a 12-0 GW surge to give the home team a lead it would not relinquish. During the spurt Sina accounted for eight of GW's points.
"Jaren, as an experienced player, came out and recognized some things and understood where he could attack," said interim head coach Maurice Joseph. "He went on a little run of his own there, and did a great job of keeping us in the game. Ultimately, it paid off with the win."
Yuta Watanabe was big on the boards for the Colonials with a game-high 12 rebounds, in the first double-double effort of his career. Watanabe was also one of four Colonials to put double figures in the scoring column with his 13 points, while Tyler Cavanaugh ran his streak of double-figure scoring for GW to 40 -- every game he's played in the Buff and Blue -- with 12 points. Freshman Collin Smith joined the upperclassmen with 11 of his own on 5-of-6 shooting before fouling out. Defensively, Watanabe also accumulated two more blocks and a steal.
Siena's Marquis Wright was outstanding in defeat, with a game-high 21 points to go along with four assists without committing a turnover in 38 minutes of play. Javion Ogunyemi put up 19 for the visitors along with seven rebounds, and fellow starter Nico Clareth hit double figures with 14, but Siena couldn't match GW's bench. The Colonials got 21 points from five reserves to out-do the Saints.
As per usual, GW was able to put distance between them and the opposition at the free throw line, with a .783 mark from the stripe (18-of-23) on the night, while limiting Siena to just 13 free throw tries. GW's domination of the glass, also spurred by seven boards in 13 minutes of play from freshman Arnaldo Toro, yielded a 46-29 edge in rebounds, including a 16-9 cushion on the offensive glass which was parlayed into a 24-11 edge in second chance points.
Toro also contributed offensively as five of his seven boards came on the offensive glass, and he was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free throw line. In an uncharacteristic shooting night for Cavanaugh, the grad student still logged a team-high 38 minutes for GW and paced the Colonials in helpers, with his career-high five dimes accounting for nearly half of GW's assists (11).
"They made some tough shots at the end," said Sina. "We're a young team, but we're growing up fast and we have to grow up fast. I think we faced some adversity and we passed the test. I'm proud of our guys. I think the biggest thing is that we climbed another step, and that's big for us. Every game we're trying to get better and I thought today we got better."
Up next for GW is another contest associated with the College Basketball Experience (CBE) Hall of Fame Classic, as GW takes on Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday at 7 p.m., before traveling to Kansas City to face Georgia on Monday and either Kansas or UAB on Tuesday.
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