Posted 2 a.m. Feb. 10 — The Colonials gave ESPN viewers and the Smith Center crowd of more than 3,000 little to get excited about on Saturday as they fell to Temple 80-58 in GW’s first and final national television appearance this season.

The loss extended GW’s losing streak to seven games, its longest since 1988-89 season when GW (10-12, 3-8 A-10) finished 1-27. Temple (10-12, 7-3) won its season-high fourth-straight game.

Temple remains GW’s toughest visiting team, as the Owls improved to 17-1 at the Smith Center.

The Colonials fell behind early and never improved. GW never led.

David Hawkins scored a career-high 28 points along with four steals for Temple, and Lynn Greer finished with 25 after going scoreless for the first 14 minutes of the game.

Chris Monroe led GW in scoring for the 19th time this season with 20 points but was held to only four on four field goal attempts in the first half. Monroe also helped in the paint against Temple’s sizable front-court with 13 rebounds.

Energized by a crowd of 3,118 fans, the Colonials made several attempts to cut Temple’s lead. But nearly every time GW made a shot, the Owls responded with a crowd-silencing three-pointer.

GW coach Karl Hobbs was clearly frustrated after many of those shots, at one point pounding the scorer’s table loudly and repeatedly. But he did not voice disappointment in his team’s defense.

“Because we couldn’t match up with them man to man physically, we had to play a lot of zones and keep changing defenses,” he said of his team which connected on just 18 percent of shots in the first half. “And they made some very good shots, many of which were contested, and that was the difference.”

Long-range shots were a key factor offensively for both teams. GW went 5 for 27 from behind the arc, including an 0-for-13 first half, while giving up a season-high 13 three-point field goals to Temple.

The woes began early for GW, as the men went nearly five minutes without a field goal during the first seven minutes and another seven minutes without scoring during the final 10 minutes of the half.

By halftime, the Colonials made only five field goals and trailed 33-15. Only Temple’s 34 percent first-half shooting kept the Colonials within the realm of contention.