Web Update

Sunday, Feb. 10, 1:10 a.m.

Junior Wynton Witherspoon hit a three-pointer with 1.9 seconds left Saturday to give GW a 57-54 victory over Dayton University.

The win is the Colonials’ first since Jan. 10, snapping their seven-game losing streak. Witherspoon finished with 19 points while classmate Rob Diggs added a career-high 29 points and led GW with 11 rebounds.

On the winning possession, the Colonials called a timeout with 29 seconds to play. They ran a play that Witherspoon said was designed for senior Maureece Rice to take the final shot, but the ball ended up in Witherspoon’s hands for the game-winner.

“The play wasn’t designed for me, it was for Reece,” Witherspoon said. “They doubled (teamed) Reece off the catch so he just passed it back to me. I just shot it with confidence.”

Rice did not score a point for the second consecutive game, but led the Colonials with six assists including the final pass to Witherspoon. Outside of Witherspoon and Diggs, no other GW player scored more than four points.

Diggs’s career night started off quickly as he scored seven of his team’s first 10 points and 16 of their 30 points in the first half. He attributed the performance to frustration that had been building over the losing streak.

“I just got tired of us losing,” Diggs said. “I just tried to play to my ability to do what I can to help us win.”

Senior Brian Roberts, Dayton’s leading scorer on the season, paced the Flyers with 20 points. Roberts took the game’s final shot, a long heave that fell short of the basket as time expired.

GW is now 2-7 in Atlantic 10 play and 6-13 overall. They next head to Saint Louis on Wednesday, whom they beat 49-20 at Smith Center in the team’s first meeting.