Game 17: Men vs. Maryland-Eastern Shore

The men's team hosts Maryland-Eastern Shore (1-7) at the Smith Center tonight. GW (2-3) is coming off of a 74-70 loss to Auburn in the BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center on Sunday afternoon. In that one, Wynton Witherspoon (17 points, seven rebounds), Rob Diggs (15 points, nine rebounds), and Maureece Rice (11 points) led the way for the Colonials.

The Hawks, who were picked to finish last out of 11 teams in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, return three starters from the squad that went 4-27 and lost in the first round of the conference tournament. UMES is led by 6-2 junior guard Ed Tyson (18.1 points per game this season), a second team All-MEAC selection. Interim head coach Meredith Smith is in his first season.

On Saturday, Maryland-Eastern Shore lost at home to Delaware State 59-47. In that one, Tyson was the only UMES player to reach double figures in scoring (14 points), as the hosts shot only 25.9% from the field in the second half. The Hawks' only win of the season came at home against Stony Brook, who is coached by former Karl Hobbs assistant Steve Pikiell, on November 15. Since that victory, Maryland-Eastern Shore has dropped six-straight, including a 110-42 beatdown at West Virginia on November 27. In addition, the Hawks lost an exhibition game at home to Shenandoah, a Division III program, in triple overtime by a score of 94-91 on November 13.

This is the fourth-ever meeting between these programs; GW is 3-0. The last meeting came at the Smith Center a year ago tonight, as the Colonials won 79-56. In that one, which marked Cheyenne Moore's first appearance in a GW jersey, four Colonials reached double figures in scoring: Rice (20 points, five rebounds), Diggs (16 points, seven rebounds, seven blocks), Regis Koundjia (13 points, five rebounds), and Carl Elliott (13 points, seven rebounds, four assists). All three of GW's wins in the series have come at the Smith Center.

Despite GW's struggles during the three-game losing streak, they should win this one easily against an undermanned Hawks squad. Look for a few Colonials to have career days.

Adam Rosenbloom and Vishal Aswani have the call for WRGW with Eric Struening and Max Feinblatt handling production duties. You can listen here starting at 7.10 p.m. I will be joining Byron Kerr for the 3WT broadcast. You can listen here starting at 7.20 p.m.

Game notes: Before the start of the game, Rice will be honored for scoring his 1,000th career point...The senior reached that mark on a three at UCLA last Wednesday...GW is 2-3 for the first time since 1999, which was Tom Penders' second-to-last season in Foggy Bottom...The Colonials' average margin of victory in their three games against UMES has been 28 points...GW has only lost four consecutive games once over the last four seasons...It happened last year during Atlantic 10 play from the end of January to mid-February...A loss today would give GW its worst six-game start to a season since going 0-6 to open the infamous 1-27 1988-1989 campaign under coach John Kuester.

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

Update, 7.35 p.m. - After honoring Maureece Rice for scoring 1,000 career points, here are the lineups for both teams:

Maryland-Eastern Shore
G - Ed Tyson (6-2 junior from Baltimore, MD)
G - Josh Bright (5-10 freshman from Salisbury, MD)
F - Denzel Jackson (6-6 freshman from Philadelphia, PA)
F - Ishmaiwyl McFadden (6-5 freshman from Philadelphia, PA)
C - Aleksander Popovic (6-10 junior from Novi Sad, Serbia)

GW
G - Xavier Alexander (6-6 freshman from Forest Park, OK)
G - Maureece Rice (6-1 senior from Philadelphia, PA)
F - Wynton Witherspoon (6-7 junior from Duluth, GA)
F - Damian Hollis (6-8 sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
F - Rob Diggs (6-8 junior from Brandywine, MD)

Update, 7,55 p.m. - A 14-2 start has the Colonials looking better, but they still are sluggish and have not asserted themselves against an absolutely atrocious UMES team. Maureece Rice leads the way with four points.

Update, 8,27 p.m. - Halftime here and GW has asserted themselves. They are still playing sloppy, but have begun to make open shots and are proving they are a much better team than the Hawks. It is interesting to note that 10 players have played tonight and Cheyenne Moore has not been in yet. Have to wonder if Hobbs is punishing him for his poor play all year and his showboating on display after a dunk against Auburn.

Update, 9,14 p.m. - Not much to report, Colonials have built their lead to 35+ and have done so from many different players. Rice is only Colonial in double figures but Noel Wilmore and Wynton Witherspoon have nine while Miles Beatty has eight. Hermann Opoku has six and looked good in his limited time. We will have postgame audio and a recap later this evening.

Update, 10.46 p.m. - Postgame audio will be up shortly. Hobbs said Moore didn't play because of a knee injury. No elaboration was given.

Update, 11.00 p.m. - Here is the postgame audio:

Smith


Hobbs


The men dominated in every aspect of the game against a very bad UMES team. The squad should have some confidence heading into Sunday's game at Virginia Tech. More to follow in the coming days.

We'll be back on Saturday as the women visit Villanova. As always, thanks for stopping by.