Men's Basketball: Duquesne 75 George Washington 73

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Men's Basketball: Duquesne 75 George Washington 73

GW's Patrick Steeves (#10) led all scorers with 23 points

From our friends at GW Athletics...

GW Men's Basketball Drops Close One to Duquesne, 75-73

Steeves scores 23 and the Colonials dish out a season-high 23 assists

Looking for a spark with a new look starting line-up, George Washington men's basketball took the floor with freshman Justin Mazzulla making his first career start at the point. Mazzulla delivered with sharp execution of the offense in a career-high seven assist performance; but as the game came to a close, the Colonials fell a bucket shy, 75-73.

A furious finish in the game's final minute was fitting for a contest in which neither side led by more than seven and the lead changed hands eight times. The Colonials trailed by seven with :31 seconds to play, but a lay-in by Patrick Steeves (game-high 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting) trimmed the margin to five with :25 on the clock. After a missed Duquesne free throw on the front end of a 1-and-1, Yuta Watanabe drew GW to within two on his three-pointer with a dozen ticks remaining. The Dukes extended back to a three-point lead with a freebie, before a Terry Nolan Jr. layup cut the lead to a single point with :05.1 seconds left. On the ensuing inbounds, the trapping defense of GW had a Duquesne ball-handler pinned in a backcourt corner, but a foul was called before a potential traveling violation was spotted to send Duquesne back to the line. A successful make and a purposeful errant miss on the back end of two free throws forced a desperation three-quarters court heave from Steeves to try to win it, but it wasn't to be.

The Colonials outshot the Dukes .509 to .500, but it was Duquesne's three-point marksmanship that gave them a leg up. For the contest they hit 9-of-14 (.643) from long range, led by Mike Lewis II's 3-of-5 effort (7-of-10 overall) en route to his team-high 17 points. Tarin Smith connected on 2-of-3 threes (5-of-7 overall) to net 15 points, while Eric Williams Jr. hit a pair of threes in his 11-point outing while snaring a team-high five rebounds. Marko Krivacevic also hit a pair of crucial triples in a :90 second half stretch that gave Duquesne a five-point lead at the under 8:00 media timeout.

Sophomore Mike Lewis II led Duquesne with 17 points

The Colonials get another home game to try to snap out of a mid A-10 season funk with Davidson coming to DC for Homecoming on Saturday at 4 PM. The game will air regionally at 4 PM on NBC Sports Washington, following the induction earlier in the day of GW men's basketball alumni Gene Guarilia and Yegor Mescheriakov into the GW Athletic Hall of Fame.