GW Smothers UMBC in Home Opener

(All Photos: Jordan Teller, Daily Colonial Basketball Photographer)

GW men’s basketball team got off to a fast start and got the home crowd involved early and often as they rolled over the University of Maryland-Baltimore County Retrievers 94-51 in their home opener on Saturday afternoon.

Freshman guard Lasan Kromah scored a career-high 21 points and Damian Hollis chipped in with 12, leaving the senior forward just three points short of 800 for his career.

In the first half, GW seemed to succeed on everything they tried.  They played the exciting, fast-paced basketball that Coach Karl Hobbs advertised before the season began as they scored ten fast break points but the real story of the half was the aforementioned Kromah, who was the clear player of the game.

He scored 20 of his game-high 21 in the first half including six threes.  He said that he wanted to keep his intensity up on both sides of the floor, which was evident with his four steals.

In the second half, the team seemed to settle its pace down a little without giving back too much.  Senior Joseph Katuka gave his team a chance to maintain it with eight points in the second half.

The bench played a tremendous part in the second half as many of the starters got some rest, scoring over a third of GW’s total points and displaying the depth that GW hopes to be able to capitalize on this season.

Hidden among the high scoring affair was the performance of sophomore point-guard Tony Taylor, who scored six points, but more importantly had six assists.  Freshman David Pellom also had a game high 11 rebounds.

“Give Tony Taylor a lot of credit for running the basketball team, making sure that the right people got the ball in the right spots where they could be effective,” said head coach Karl Hobbs.

Hobbs said that keeping the intensity high on both ends of the floor was key.  The Colonials forced 15 UMBC turnovers and scored 27 points off of them.

Opposing coach Randy Monroe also had high praise for GW.

“They came after us, they bodied up on us,” he said.  “From a physical standpoint they really got into us and forced us to turn the ball over.  We had trouble doing everything with GW today.”

The Colonials will try to take their season opening three-game winning streak back to the Smith Center as they take on Princeton at 7pm on Tuesday night.  The next Thursday GW will take on Craig Robinson, Michelle Obama’s brother, and his Oregon State Beavers.