Game seven: Men vs. Boston University

The men's team faces Boston University (1-0) tonight at the Smith Center. On Saturday, GW (1-0) had strong performances from Rob Diggs (21 points, six rebounds), Wynton Witherspoon (15 points, 11 rebounds), Maureece Rice (15 points), and Damian Hollis (nine points, 12 rebounds) in a 77-62 triumph over Mount St. Mary's in the season opener.

Boston University, the preseason pick to win the America East Conference, is coming off of a 12-18 campaign that saw the program reach the semifinals of the conference tournament. Coach Dennis Wolff, who like Karl Hobbs played college basketball at Connecticut and started his coaching career as an assistant at BU, is 217-167 in his 14th year at the helm of the program.

The Terriers return four starters, most notably 6-2 sophomore guard Corey Lowe (team-high 14.1 points per game last season), who was a member of the America East All-Rookie Team. He is joined by 6-2 sophomore guards Tyler Morris (13.4 points), the conference's 2007 Rookie of the Year, and Carlos Strong (9.5 points), and 6-9 sophomore forward Scott Brittain (seven points, six rebounds). 6-7 sophomore forward Valdas Sirutis (1.8 points) and 6-6 junior swingman Matt Wolff, the coach's son who sat out last season due to an injury, are also expected to play a major role for BU.

On Friday night, the Terriers used a career-high tying 28 points from Lowe to beat St. Bonaventure 68-57 in Boston. 6-5 freshman swingman John Holland (12 points), Strong (11), and Brittain (10) also reached double figures for Wolff's squad. In that contest, an astounding 33 of the team's 61 field goal attempts were from behind the three-point line.

This is the 16th-ever meeting between these two programs; GW is 14-1. The last meeting came on November 10 of last year, as the Colonials used 25 points, five rebounds, and three assists from Carl Elliott to beat the Terriers 70-57 in Boston in the season opener for both squads. GW won 75-62 in the last meeting between these two programs at the Smith Center on December 2, 2005. Rice had 17 points in that contest, and the team went 11-22 from three. It was Pops Mensah-Bonsu's first game of the season following a three-game suspension for NCAA violations relating to his early entry to the NBA Draft. The lone BU win in the series came on February 19, 1979 in Boston by a score of 87-76.

BU is a solid young team that could give the Colonials trouble. Following the disappointing performance against UDC in the exhibition game and the easy win over Mount St. Mary's, this contest should be a good measuring stick to see how good Hobbs' squad really is. Expect a close one throughout before GW uses the home court advantage to find a way to get to 2-0.

Phil Kaminski and Paul Marmaro have the call for WRGW with Evan Waxman and Scott Trocchia handling production duties. You can listen here starting at 7.10 p.m. I will join Byron Kerr for the 3WT broadcast. You can listen here starting at 7.20 p.m.

Game notes: Rice needs just nine points to become the 40th person in program history with 1,000 career points...Rice also needs three three-pointers to pass SirValiant Brown for eighth in program history...The Colonials have not lost a non-conference home game since an 84-76 setback against Old Dominion on December 28, 2002...Since that loss, Hobbs' squad is 20-0 in non-conference home games...None of those 20 wins came against a team that reached the NCAA Tournament...The GW-BU series began during the 1958-1959 season...GW is 24-4 all-time against America East teams...The Terriers are the only team in the America East Conference without a senior on its roster.

Starting lineups and other notes to follow from the Smith Center once we get closer to tip-off. Julian Gompertz will be doing live blogging all night, so please check back later.

Update, 4.05 p.m. - Spoke to someone with the program who has knowledge of King's situation. He said that he expects the sophomore to dress for tonight's game but doubts he will play.

Update, 7.00 p.m. - Just heard from one of the coaches that King might play. Stay tuned.

Update, 7.47 p.m. - Boston University is playing without both Ibrahim Konate and the America East rookie of the year last season Tyler Morris. Morris is out with shin splints. Stay tuned for starting lineups

Update, 7.52 p.m. - Here are your starting lineups:

BU
G - Corey Lowe (6-2 sophomore from Newton, MA)
G - Carlos Strong (6-3 sophomore from Portland, ME)
G - Matt Wolff (6-6 junior from Walpole, MA)
F - Max Gotzler (6-7 junior from Weilheim, Germany)
F - Scott Brittain (6-9 sophomore from Oakville, Ontario)

GW
G - Reece Rice (6-1 senior from Philadelphia, PA)
G - Damian Hollis (6-8 sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
F - Cheyenne Moore (6-5 junior from Baltimore, MD)
F - Wynton Witherspoon (6-7 junior from Duluth, GA)
F - Rob Diggs (6-8 junior from Brandywine, MD)

Update, 7.58 p.m. - Rob Diggs just emphatically dunked the ball and than got away with a technical foul for either taunting the Terriers or hanging on the rim. BU though looks strong, Carlos Strong, that is, as he has three 3-PT FG's and BU is leading 16-8 five minutes in.

Update, 8.02 p.m. - TRAVIS KING IS BACK. He is in the game as we speak, but GW still down 16-10

Update, 8.07 p.m. - Quite a frenetic pace here at the start, as missed lay-ups on both ends by Xavier Alexander and BU's Scott Brittain, cap the first eight minutes of play. Miles Beatty hit a big three-pointer to cut the BU deficit to five as the score is 18-13.

Update, 8.14 p.m. - Rob Diggs, two emphatic blocks, but again made it his duty to get up in Scott Brittain's face and remind him of the block which led to a warning by the referee.

Update, 8.28 p.m. - The Colonials have fought back and now lead BU 26-22 with four minutes to play. Noticed that after a Noel Wilmore three, the soft-spoken guard could be seen mouthing profanities towards the BU bench which also got him a warning from the referee. More to come from Smith Center at the half.

Update, 8.38 p.m. - Halftime here and the Colonials hold a 36-26 lead. Was really impressed with the resolve as the team got down early and it looked as though BU could run away with it, but GW hung in there, Diggs and Rice did what they were supposed to do, and hit a few big shots, and the Colonials were off and running. They also were running their mouths and probably should have received a technical foul somewhere along the line, but either way GW is up 10 at the half against a good Boston University squad.

Update, 9.06 p.m. - Rob Diggs is out to prove he is a true big man, and has opened the second half on his own 10-0 run as the Colonials have jumped out to a 46-30 lead. Diggs now has 17 points and nine rebounds.

Update, 9.26 p.m. - Just as it seemed BU might creep back into the game back-to-back three point field goals by Xavier Alexander and Noel Wilmore have pushed GW's lead back to 18. The Colonials lead 59-41 and Alexander and Wilmore have been big assets off the bench with Xavier contributing nine points and Wilmore having eight.

Update, 11.43 p.m. - Postgame audio:

Wolff

Diggs

Hobbs


A solid all-around performance by the Colonials. Consider this: GW played without its starting point guard and embarked on a 28-6 run to close the first half without the services of Rice. Basically, without either member of the starting backcourt, GW pulled away from a very good BU squad. The offense wasn't always pretty, but the defense was extremely impressive. What a difference two weeks makes.

With 10 days off, it'll be interesting to see if the layoff has any impact come the Saturday after Thanksgiving at Maryland-Baltimore County. This is the stretch when having only 10 non-conference games might hurt the squad.

A long day of basketball is over. We'll be back on Sunday for the big Rutgers contest. Thanks for stopping by.