WASHINGTON – The George Washington men’s basketball team posted its most one-sided victory in five seasons with a 77-38 triumph over visiting Sacred Heart at the Charles E. Smith Center on Sunday afternoon.
All 12 available players scored for GW, which evened its record at 6-6 heading into its non-conference finale Friday at Georgia. The 39-point margin of victory was the largest for the Colonials since a 78-39 win over UMES in Dec. 2007.
Seniors Lasan Kromah and Dwayne Smith led the Colonials with 10 points apiece, followed by a season-high tying nine from senior Bryan Bynes, and eight each from senior Isaiah Armwood and freshmen Joe McDonald and Paris Maragkos.
Kromah added a team-high eight rebounds, while McDonald chipped in seven boards, four assists and four steals. Freshman Patricio Garino equaled McDonald’s game-high four steals, including a pair of steal-and-dunk efforts in the first half, and Armwood added a game-high three blocks.
GW also surrendered its fewest points (38) and lowest opponent field goal percentage (23.7 percent) since a 49-20 victory over Saint Louis at the Smith Center in Jan. 2008. The Billikens shot just 14.6 percent en route to the lowest shot-clock era point total in NCAA Division I history in that game.
Sacred Heart (2-9) leading scorer Shane Gibson, who entered the game at better than 17 points per game, made his first and last three-point attempts, but went just 1-of-10 in between and finished with eight points on 3-of-12 shooting. Louis Montes paced the Pioneers, who dropped their seventh straight game, with 15 points and nine rebounds.
SHU held its lone lead at 8-6 on a Montes tip-in 4:57 into the contest, but it was all GW from there as it closed the half with a 35-10 run and led 41-18 at halftime. Nine GW players reached the scorebook by the break, led by all nine of Bynes’ season-high total and seven from Armwood, as the hosts shot 59 percent (16-27) compared 22 percent (6-27) for SHU.
It was more of the same in the second half as Kromah netted eight early second-half points and the Colonials opened the stanza with a 13-1 spurt to push the margin above 30 at 54-19 with 15 minutes left. GW coach Mike Lonergan went to his bench from that point, with Maragkos knocking down his first collegiate three-pointer and adding five rebounds to his season-best eight points.
GW’s lead peaked at 77-32 after sophomore John Kopriva became the final player to reach the scoring column on a foul shot with 2:42 to play.
The Colonials enjoyed a wide margin in bench points (39-5) and points off turnovers (23-8) while posting season-highs of 19 forced turnovers and 12 steals.
The Colonials complete the non-conference portion of their schedule with a visit to Georgia on Friday, Jan. 4. The game can viewed live on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and Comcast Sports Southeast, as well as ESPN3 and WatchESPN, and heard live on 1500/820 AM.
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