WASHINGTON, DC — The Hawks gave the Colonials a scare, but ultimately the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team fell to George Washington on Friday, November 18, by a score of 69-64.
Scoring was hard to come by for both sides in the first half, with George Washington going on a 6-0 run to end the period to add some distance, 31-21. Despite the deficit, the Hawks held the edge in rebounding at the break and over much of the contest against a bigger squad.
"I thought we rebounded the ball pretty well, only getting outrebounded by two versus a very big and athletic team," Crafton said.
With just over six minutes to go in the contest, the Hawks found themselves chasing 19 points against the Colonials. With 2:01 to go, the lead stood at 17 points.
Ahamadou Fofana sprinted down the court and kicked to Chace Davis, who buried a three. This prompted a quick Hawk timeout. Out of the break in the action, Zion Styles poked the ball loose and Da'Shawn Phillip finished with a fastbreak dunk.
With the lead down to 12, the Hawks had to play the foul game. The teams alternated trips to the stripe and GWU held a 10-point lead with 36 seconds to go.
Fofana again blazed down the court and kicked to Tuka Nugent, who knocked down the corner three to cut it to seven. After another Colonials turnover, Nathaniel Pollard, Jr. laid one in to make it a five-point contest.
Zion Styles ripped another possession away from George Washington, but nine seconds proved too little time.
After posting a Division I best 44 points GWU's last game against Hofstra, the Hawks held James Bishop to 19 on Friday night.
"I thought we did an amazing job neutralizing Bishop," head coach Jason Crafton said. "He made some tough shots, but I thought we made him work for most of them."
"I didn't love our offensive execution in spots, I think we got sped up and made some poor decisions. We've got to be better than that offensively and we've got to play 40 minutes of toughness the way we played the last seven minutes."
Fofana scored a team-high 13 points and added three assists on the night. Davis finished just behind with 12 to go with two steals and Phillip tallied 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and a block on the night.
Pollard finished one point shy of a double-double, totaling nine points and hauling in his Hawk career-high 15 rebounds in the win along with four assists and two steals. Styles rounded out the starting five with nine points, six rebounds and three steals.
"They've got to keep improving," Crafton said. "Collectively as a basketball team, we have to play better basketball on both ends of the floor."
The Hawks return home Tuesday, facing Marist College on Faculty & Staff Night at The Hytche. Tipoff is slated for 8 p.m.
