George Washington University
19-14
Richmond (A-10 Quarterfinals)
20-11
Men's Basketball Falls in Heartbreaker, 70-67
3/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
PITTSBURGH -- Inbounding under Richmond's bucket trailing by one, 68-67, with :05 on the clock, GW men's basketball had an opportunity to avenge a pair of losses at the hands of Richmond earlier this season. Yuta Watanabe received the inbound pass, and after a stellar defensive game on A-10 Player of the Year T.J. Cline, he had a chance to make the offensive play of the game. However, after absorbing contact in the lane a foul wasn't called and Richmond went the other way to secure the win.
GW's A-10 season ends in the conference quarterfinals, and with a 19-14 record overall the Colonials now await its postseason fate to be decided on Sunday night. Behind All-Conference performer Tyler Cavanaugh, the sixth-seeded Colonials went toe-to-toe with the Spiders, as Cavanaugh put up game highs with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Double-teamed on the final play the grad student was unable to get a touch as he now sets his sights to a potential NIT berth; a tournament that he dominated last March en route to Most Outstanding Player honors.
On Friday however it was not to be for Cavanaugh and the Colonials as Richmond was awarded 12 more free throw tries than GW in the back-and-forth affair. The 34-34 deadlock at the half was one of three tie scores, while the lead changed hands a whopping 21 times. Patrick Steeves also carried a heavy load for GW in defeat with 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting, including six of the Colonials' final 13 points as he rallied the team from six-point deficits twice in the final minutes to set the stage for the final flurry.
Watanabe, the All-Conference defender, limited Cline to eight points on 3-of-9 shooting, but the guard tandem of Khwan Fore and ShawnDre' Jones got it done for Richmond. Jones netted 19 and buried three big three-pointers, while Fore contributed 14 along his team high seven rebounds.
Neither team led by more six as the teams fought for the right to play VCU in Saturday's semifinal. The other side of the bracket features Davidson vs. Rhode Island in the other semis match-up.
