George Washington University
3-2
UAB
3-2
Men's Basketball Can't Complete Comeback vs. UAB
11/22/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
KANSAS CITY -- In a hard fought battle in the consolation game of the College Basketball Experience Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, the GW men's basketball team dropped a tough one to UAB in an 81-74 decision to come home with a 3-2 record on the season.
After three days off over Thanksgiving, GW will next put its 27-game home winning streak against non-conference foes on the line on Saturday when it hosts the Big Ten's Penn State Nittany Lions at 4 p.m. The Colonials are 17-10 over the last three-plus seasons against teams from the AAC, ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, Pac 12 and SEC.
On Tuesday night vs. the Blazers, after trailing by as many as 16 in the first half and by 12 with 14:57 to play, GW staged a furious rally over a 2:49 stretch with a 13-0 run to take a 54-53 lead. Point man Jaren Sina contributed five of his 16 points during the spurt, including a triple to ignite the surge and a jumper to cap it.
GW led again at 58-57 after a pair of free throws from both Yuta Watanabe and Tyler Cavanaugh, but three quick threes from UAB were part of an 11-4 Blazers' answer to send the game into the under-4:00 timeout with the Colonials down six.
The Colonials fought back again and again but UAB seemed to answer every time as GW expended so much energy in the comeback attempt. GW drew as close as five with 47.3 seconds to play after a Matt Hart three in transition, again after a Cavanaugh lay-in with :34 to play, and a final time at 79-74 following a Sina three ball with :13 on the clock, but could get no closer.
"We should be proud of how we fought," said interim head coach Maurice Joseph. "We have to understand that we can't dig ourselves into this deep of a hole, with this good of a team and expect to win. You expend all of that energy trying to claw your way back, and we did that and we did a really great job of that, but we were kind of gassed towards the end and couldn't finish the job. It was a great learning experience for us."
Sina made four three-pointers on the night as part of his strong shooting performance (5-of-10 FG, 4-of-8 3PT FG, 2-of-2 FT), and Tyler Cavanaugh once again registered a big 19-point, 13-rebound double-double (both team highs), while Watanabe threw in 18 of his own, as the trio accounted for 72 percent of GW's scoring output. Watanabe also recorded two threes, two blocks and a steal in a fine two-way effort, but UAB was too hot from the floor for the Colonials to match.
Led by Chris Cokley (19 points on 9-of-11 shooting), William Lee (19 on 6-of-10 shooting) and Dirk Williams (15, 5-of-8), the Blazers canned 51.9% of their field goal tries, including .444 from behind the arc (8-of-18), in addition to .864 from the free throw line (19-of-22).
GW was able to win the battle of the boards with a 35-31 edge on the glass, including a 17-8 advantage in offensive rebounds, which the Colonials translated into an 18-7 cushion in second chance points. Arnaldo Toro grabbed four of those caroms on the offensive end with seven points and five total boards in his 18 minutes of play.
The Colonials were also strong from the charity stripe with a 14-of-16 night at the line, but it wasn't enough to overcome UAB (3-2).
""We played two very good teams," said Sina. "We've got to get back and watch some film, keep moving forward and getting better."
Looking ahead to Saturday afternoon, GW downed Penn State at the Smith Center last year on Dec. 8th. In that game, Cavanaugh had an 18-point, 10-rebound double-double, while Watanabe drained four three-pointers en route to a 14-point outing in a 76-66 win for the Colonials.
