Men’s Basketball Shoots Past UMass, 79-67

Wednesday, February 20

Washington, D.C.

7:00 p.m.

George Washington University

8-18, 4-9 A-10

Massachusetts

9-17, 2-11 A-10

UMASS

George Washington

Maceo Jack had a game-high 20 points

2/20/2019 10:13:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Highlights

The Colonials connected on 55.1 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from three-point

WASHINGTON -- The GW men's basketball team welcomed longtime A-10 foe Massachusetts to the Charles E. Smith Center on Wednesday night in snowy DC, and promptly shot the Minutemen out of the building. Behind the marksmanship and steady play of starting guards Maceo Jack (game-high 20 points), Armel Potter (19 points, team-high four assists, 0 turnovers), DJ Williams (15 points) and Justin Mazzulla (12 points, 6-of-6 FT), the Buff and Blue backcourt dominated the action and picked up a key conference win against a team that topped second-place Davidson just two games prior.

GW raced out to a 38-25 lead at halftime behind a sterling first half from Jack. The sophomore from Buffalo -- arguably the conference's Most Improved Player this season -- dropped in 12 points in his 16 first half minutes, including a perfect 3-of-3 performance from long range. As a team GW drained 14-of-21 shots from the floor in the opening stanza (4-of-6 3PT FG). Potter racked up a double-digit night by intermission as well with 10 points in his 15 minutes of play.

While the Colonials cooled a bit in the second half to 13-of-28 shooting, the defensive intensity stayed consistent. With UMass trying to get back into the game from deep, GW limited the Minutemen to .333 shooting from 3-point range (8-of-24) as the volume of triple-tries didn't find their mark enough to sizably dent GW's significant margin, which reached 19 at its largest late in the contest.

Jack grabbed a team-high seven rebounds as GW continues to employ a gang-rebounding mentality in the absence of big man Arnaldo Toro, and the squad won the rebounding battle on the night. Controlling the ball with just nine turnovers total also led to a 17-7 edge in points off turnovers on the other end of the floor.

A winning staple for GW teams of yesteryear impacted the game as well, as the ongoing game-within-the-game to make more free throws than the opposition attempts was won by the Buff and Blue in the contest. The Colonials canned 20-of-28 freebies while the Minutemen got to the line 16 times.

UMass was led by Carl Pierre's 14 points, while Luwane Pipkins piped in 13.

Five games remain in GW's quest for A-10 Championship positioning in Brooklyn next month, first up at VCU on Saturday. Tip-time from Richmond is 2 p.m.

After an ensuing visit to Rhode Island, the Colonials are home again to host Saint Bonaventure on Saturday, March 2nd at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.