Game 58: Men vs. Massachusetts

The men's team hosts Massachusetts (20-9, 9-6) tonight at the Smith Center on Senior Day. GW (9-16, 5-10) is coming off of a 77-61 loss at Charlotte on Thursday night. In that one, three Colonials reached double figures in scoring: Rob Diggs (16 points, 10 rebounds), Wynton Witherspoon (15 points, five rebounds), and Noel Wilmore (13 points). However, the 49ers closed the game on a 21-6 run to hold on for the win.

The Minutemen, who were picked to finish eighth out of 14 teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference, return two starters from the squad that went 24-9 and lost at West Virginia in the second round of the NIT. Massachusetts has four players averaging double figures in scoring: 6-7 senior forward/guard Gary Forbes (20.3 points, 8.9 rebounds per game this season), 6-2 sophomore guard Ricky Harris (16.8 points), 6-7 senior forward Etienne Brower (14.3 points, 6.6 rebounds), and 6-0 junior guard Chris Lowe (11.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, 6.9 assists). Coach Travis Ford is 57-33 in his third season with the Minutemen; he is 185-144 in 11 seasons as a head coach. Massachusetts ranks fourth in the nation in both points per game and blocks.

Massachusetts is coming off of a 100-63 home win over LaSalle on Wednesday. In that one, five Minutemen reached double figures in scoring: Forbes (26 points, 11 rebounds), Harris (21 points, seven rebounds), 6-9 senior forward Dante Milligan (18 points, six rebounds, five blocks), Lowe (14 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists, four steals), and Brower (11 points, five rebounds, three blocks). Massachusetts shot 38-73 (52.1%) from the field, including 14-31 (45.2%) from three-point land. The Minutemen outrebounded the Explorers 55-33 and received 44 points from their bench. Massachusetts comes into this one having won five-straight games, but the Minutemen are just 6-6 on the road.

This is the 58th-ever meeting between these programs; GW is 33-24. The last meeting came on January 10, 2007 in Amherst, MA, which the Minutemen won 91-84. In that one, three Colonials reached double figures in scoring: Maureece Rice (30 points, seven rebounds), Carl Elliott (19 points, six rebounds), and Diggs (10 points, eight rebounds). Massachusetts' Stephane Lasme recorded the first-ever triple-double against GW with 23 points, 15 rebounds, and 11 blocks. Amazingly, the Colonials attempted 77 field goals in that contest. The loss snapped GW's 18-game conference winning streak. The Minutemen have won two of the last three meetings in this series, and three of the last four contests at the Smith Center. GW is 19-5 against Massachusetts all-time at the Smith Center.

GW has nothing but pride to play for, while Massachusetts is very much in the mix for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The pick here is for the Minutemen to come away with a road win.

Greg Shapiro and I have the call for WRGW with Scott Trocchia and Varun Saxena handling production duties. You can listen here at the conclusion of the women's game against Rhode Island. Our own Paul Marmaro will join Byron Kerr for the 3WT broadcast. You can listen here starting at 7.20 p.m.

Game notes: Fordham's win over St. Bonaventure earlier today eliminated GW from qualifying for the 2008 Atlantic 10 Tournament...The Colonials join Duquesne (2006), St. Bonaventure (2006-2008), and LaSalle (2007) as the only programs ever to fail to qualify for the A-10 Tournament...The last time GW did not participate in a postseason tournament was the 1973-1974 season when the squad went 15-11 under coach Carl Slone...The last time the Colonials did not reach 10 wins in a season was the 1988-1989 campaign, when the squad went 1-27 under coach John Kuester...Seniors Keri Gonsalves and Dominic Green will be honored before tonight's game along with student managers Alyssa Greco and Kimberly Nathan...GW is 35-4 in its last 39 home games...The Colonials are 8-3 at home...GW hasn't lost four home games in a season since going 7-4 at the Smith Center during the 2002-2003 campaign...GW is just 4-4 when scoring at least 70 points...The Colonials were 16-1 when scoring at least 70 points last season...Coach Karl Hobbs has used 13 different starting lineups through 25 games...GW used just five different starting lineups in 32 games last season...This season, the backcourt accounts for only 34% of GW's points...Last season, the backcourt accounted for 54% of the Colonials' scoring...GW has six losses by 20 or more points this season...Over the first six years of the Hobbs era, the Colonials only suffered 10 losses by that margin...GW is 4-5 on Saturdays, 1-11 when allowing 70 points or more, and 5-10 coming off of a loss...Harris is the reigning A-10 Co-Player of the Week.

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

Update, 7:27 p.m. - Firstly, it is nice to see Travis King taking some warmup shots before the game. Many believe this season was lost when he went down, and to see him looking close to 100% is a wonderful sight among what will be a mostly somber senior night. Also worth mentioning there are a group of fans in the student section wearing bags on their heads, probably fitting seeing as this team will not be traveling to Atlantic City.

For the Senior Day festivities, it was weird not seeing Maureece Rice honored with Dominic Green and Keri Gonsalves, but the fans were chanting his name through the introductions. Wonderful to hear GW call Gonsalves "a dedicated walk-on" when he has not played in a game in two years. They also claimed Karl Hobbs called Dominic Green "the unsung hero" of this GW basketball team. Probably explains why we are 9-16 as Dom, while being entertaining off the court averages a whopping .7 ppg and .8 rpg. Those are truly the stats of an unsung hero. Starting lineups to come shortly.

Update, 7:35 p.m. - Here are your starting lineups:

Massachusetts
G - Chris Lowe (6-0 junior from Mt. Vernon, NY)
G - Ricky Harris (6-2 sophomore from Baltimore, MD)
F - Gary Forbes (6-7 senior from Brooklyn, NY)
F - Etienne Brower (6-7 senior from West Hempstead, NY)
C - Dante Milligan (6-9 senior from New York, NY)

GW
G - Johnny Lee (5-8 sophomore from Nashville, TN)
G - Xavier Alexander (6-6 freshman from Forest Park, OK)
F - Dominic Green (6-6 senior from Oakland, CA)
F - Damian Hollis (6-8 sophomore from Ft. Lauderdale, FL)
F - Rob Diggs (6-8 junior from Brandywine, MD)

Green gets the start in what is a nothing game for GW other than maybe to put the Rice legacy to rest.

Update, 7:46 p.m. - We have a Pops-Mensah Bonsu sighting. Pops was playing overseas, but he is in attendance and will be on the halftime show for the WRGW broadcast so stay tuned for that. As for the game UMASS is up early 11-4 with a couple of three-pointers by senior captain Gary Forbes.

Update, 8:00 p.m. - Well nice to see GW show up to this one, albeit about eight minutes into the first-half. GW has used a 12-3 run to take a 20-18 lead with a couple big Wilmore three-point shots with an Alexander lay-up sandwiched in between. Sadly our leading scorer Rob Diggs is currently scoreless which brings up the interesting question how much talent is needed to win a basketball game against an NCAA bubble team with 5 straight wins?

Update, 8:44 p.m. - A tightly contested battle here between both the minutemen and colonials, with GW currently holding a 3-pt advantage. No colonial has more than nine points but they have hung together with some gritty efforts from guys like Wilmore, Hollis and Witherspoon.

Update, 9:10 p.m. - Under four minutes to play and this one is going down to the wire. GW leads 61-60 with Damian Hollis leading the team down the stretch with 18 points. The Colonials have had no answer for Ricky Harris who leads all scorers with 20. Similarly to Leemire Goldwire on thursday, GW seemingly has given him the same 3-pt corner shot three or four times this half, which makes you wonder how the Colonials can lead the A-10 in 3-pt FG% defense. Stay with WRGW for what should be an exciting end to a meaningless game.

Update, 9:26 p.m. - 23.5 seconds remaining and UMASS holds a 66-63 lead. The Colonials will look to tie this one, as shoddy refeereing down the stretch might have prevented GW from coming away with their 10th win of the year already. It is going to be one final hurrah.

Update, 10.30 p.m. - A valiant effort by the Colonials, but the Minutemen hold on for a tough 67-63 win. GW got strong performances from Hollis (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Wilmore (10 points, five rebounds), but the season ends tonight here at the Smith Center. At 9-17, it's the first sub-10 win season for the program since the disastrous 1-27 1988-1989 campaign.

Touching moment after the game when Hobbs was asked if he was disappointed Rice couldn't share in the festivities. After pausing a moment and becoming visibly emotional, Hobbs said he was disappointed, but that he wishes the senior the best of luck.

We'll be back later this week with a wrap-up of the men's season. However, GW basketball goes on, as the women face Xavier in the semifinals of the A-10 Tournament tomorrow afternoon. As always, thanks for stopping by.