CHARLOTTE, N.C. – It’s a popular saying among coaches that teams must learn from close defeats, that learning to win can often include some losing. GW, it seems, will have to keep learning after dropping yet another close game, this time a 72-68 lesson taught on the road at Charlotte.
The Colonials (12-9, 2-6 Atlantic 10) seemed poised to escape Charlotte with an impressive road win, leading by five with less than 90 seconds remaining in the game. After the 49ers scored on a pair of free throws, sophomore Tony Taylor turned the ball over, leading to a game-tying three by Charlotte’s Derrio Green.
On the next possession, senior Damian Hollis lost the ball while driving to the basket with 21 seconds left, then fouled the 49ers’ Dijuan Harris.
Harris made both free throws to give Charlotte the lead and, after a missed jumper by Taylor and two more foul shots for the 49ers, GW again found itself on the wrong side of a down-to-the-wire finish.
“I thought we played our game, we’ve been playing our game,” head coach Karl Hobbs said. “Once again – and I don’t want to sound like it’s the same old story – but under a minute at Rhode Island, under a minute tonight, and those are the things that we’re working on every single day. All week long we worked on, ‘under a minute, we’re not giving up a three,’ and unfortunately tonight under a minute, we gave up a three.”
GW opened the contest red-hot, going on a 14-2 run over the first three and a half minutes of play as Hollis scored 13 of the team’s first 17 points.
The lead would not last long, however, as the 49ers methodically chipped away at GW’s advantage, overtaking the Colonials by the 6:30 mark in the first half. GW quickly retook the lead, but could never expand its margin past six for the remainder of the game.
Taylor was noticeably absent from GW’s offense, scoring just three points on one of nine shooting on the night after performances of 22, 18 and 16 points in his last three games. The second-year guard did contribute with six assists against Charlotte, but it was his turnover late in the game that resulted in the game being tied.
The Colonials were led in scoring by Hollis, who scored 16 of his 23 points in the first half. The only other GW player in double-figures was freshman Lasan Kromah, who had 11 points but also six turnovers.
Though he got contributions from his team’s top two scorers in the game, Hobbs said after the game his team still needed work offensively.
“I think we gotta finish plays,” Hobbs said of his team’s late-game performance. “I think down the stretch we gotta finish plays, and then we gotta get the key stops.”
Hobbs said that even among the plethora of close losses his team has experienced this season, there are still lessons to be learned as the young Colonials make their way through what he called the deepest A-10 he has seen during his tenure in Foggy Bottom.
“Hopefully people will appreciate what they’re doing,” Hobbs said. “They’ll appreciate how difficult, how good the Atlantic 10 is. You look around this league, gee, I’m nine years in this league and this is the best it’s ever been.”
GW will get another shot at Charlotte later this season Feb. 27 back home at the Smith Center, but Hobbs said post-game that to start thinking about revenge now would be too premature.
“It’s too far, I can’t think about them right now,” Hobbs said. “I think for us, we gotta just keep getting better, I think we just gotta keep encouraging these young guys, keep building their confidence, let them understand that we are a good basketball team. We gotta take care of those last two minutes of basketball games, and that takes time… Now we just gotta get smart.”
The Colonials will host Duquesne Saturday at the Smith Center at 2 p.m.
