Colonials hurt themselves, fall further
By: Craig Stouffer
Examiner Staff Writer
February 11, 2009
La Salle 68, George Washington 57
Teams that give up four-point and five-point plays do not give themselves a good chance to win. George Washington, which needs every victory it can get with seven games to go to even consider squeaking its way into the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament, is running out of good chances.
Coming of their first conference win of the season last weekend, the Colonials spotted La Salle both such plays in the first half and could never bounce back in a scrappy 68-57 loss in front of 2,409 at Smith Center.
The defeat was a program-record third in a row to the Explorers (13-10, 4-5 A-10), who snapped their own three-game skid.
“We’re just not talented, not good enough to have that sort of thing happen to us at the onset of the game and try to fight through it,” said Colonials head coach Karl Hobbs. “Whether it was a turnover to would stop the momentum and break our run, or a missed free throw that would break our run, or we would give them a lay-up to break our run, I though GW hurt GW tonight.”
Just one minute into the contest, La Salle was offered its first four points at the free throw line when George Washington’s Damian Hollis picked up a personal foul and technical foul for adding some unnecessary extracurricular activity to the end of his foul on Kimmani Barrett (14 points) on a fast break.
Barrett hit all four free throws, one of four Explorers to finish the half perfect from the line, where they converted 11-of-13 attempts.
The group included Ruben Guillandeaux (game-high 22 points), who made the most of his chance to hit three in row at the line – two resulting from a Hobbs technical for a tirade at the officials, and one to finish off a traditional 3-point play – completing a 5-point swing that turned La Salle’s 27-21 advantage into a 32-21 score.
“I just think that officials, to me, they have to work together as a team, and they have to understand the flow of the game, and there has to be some consistency with the calls,” said Hobbs, responding to a reporter’s question about what led to his technical foul. “I’ve never been one to complain about referees. I’m not complaining now.”
Despite picking up his third and fourth fouls less than five minutes into the second half, Hollis managed a team-high 20 points and helped pull the Colonials (7-14, 1-8) within 45-42 with 8:08 to play.
But despite playing without injured leading rebounder Yves Mekongo Mbala – who scored game-high 26 in La Salle’s win over GW two weeks ago – for a third straight game, the Explorers reasserted control with a 10-2 run that included two free throws from Rodney Green (14 points), part of the visitors’ 23-of-28 effort at the line.
“We didn’t turn it over against pressure in crunch time,” said Explorers head coach John Giannini “For us, that’s a big factor, and I think that’s one of the reasons we were able to go to the line, too. I think we were strong with the ball, we went to the basket strong.”
