George Washington University
24-10
Hofstra (NIT First Round)
24-10
GW Advances in NIT With 82-80 Win Over Hofstra
3/16/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
WASHINGTON -- In the first-ever Postseason NIT game at the Smith Center, grad student Alex Mitola sunk Hofstra with a running jumper in the lane in the closing seconds to down the visiting Pride, 82-80, on Wednesday night. Mitola's heroics represented just his second made field goal of the night.
The victory marks GW's second all-time win in the NIT following last season's win at Pittsburgh. The Colonials now advance to face the region's top seed Monmouth in New Jersey on Monday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line.
Four GW student-athletes scored in double figures led by Tyler Cavanaugh's 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor. Cavanaugh also had a team-high 11 rebounds in his ninth double-double of the season.
Three Colonials reached double figures in scoring before the intermission, as Cavanaugh led the first half explosion with 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a perfect mark from long range (2-of-2) and at the charity stripe (4-of-4). GW led 49-38 going into the locker room at the half.
Yuta Watanabe had 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting at the halftime break, including a pair of three-pointers in four attempts, while Kevin Larsen accumulated 11 points, four boards and four assists in the opening stanza, after falling an assist shy of a triple-double in his last outing. Watanabe finished with 15 points while Larsen ended with a 15-7-7 line along with four steals in a team-high 39 minutes of action.
Patricio Garino also registered in double-figures with 18 points, as all but Watanabe's 15 points for GW came from players who are in their fourth year in college.
The buzzer-beating end was fitting for a contest that saw five ties and five lead changes. GW enjoyed a 13-point lead at its largest, while Hofstra's biggest lead was five.
The Colonials led by 80-71 with 2:38 left after Mitola hit his first bucket of the game, a three-pointer, before Hofstra answered with a 9-0 run that tied it with 13 seconds to play. Mitola came through with the heroics from there, drilling his jumper with 2.8 seconds left, and a half-court heave from Hofstra was off the mark at the buzzer.
The Pride were led by Juan'ya Green's game-high 26 points and 10 assists along with Rokas Gustys' 14-point, 13-rebound double-double.
GW used 20 Pride miscues to tally 22 points off the turnovers on the other end. The Colonials also doubled-up Hofstra, the co-CAA regular season champions, 16-8 in the paint. The home team also matched Hofstra's free throw attempts (12) with a dozen makes of its own in what has become a season-long trend of winning the free throw battle.
The first half featured five lead changes and four ties, the last coming when Watanabe drilled a three to break a 33-33 deadlock with 4:03 to play. The Colonials closed the half on a 16-5 run over the last four minutes, highlighted by a sequence where Cavanaugh scored on a putback and Watanabe stole the in-bounds before laying it in to make it 44-34 and prompt a Hofstra timeout.
Notes
- GW's 24 wins are tied for the second most in school history, with two of GW's 24-wins seasons coming under Mike Lonergan (also 2013-14). GW also had 24-win teams in 1997-98 and 1954-55. The school record is 27 (2005-06).
- GW's 15 home wins are tied for the most in school history (also 2005-06).
- The win marked GW's 23rd straight against non-conference opponents in the Charles E. Smith Center, a streak which dates back to December 2012. GW last lost a non-conference home game on Dec. 8, 2012, to K-State.
- Cavanaugh reached 1,000 points in his career, becoming the sixth Colonial on the current roster to reach the mark (Garino, Larsen, Mitola, Joe McDonald, Matt Hart).
- Larsen moved into fifth place on GW's career rebounding list with 925, passing Mike Hall.
