Colonials Advance in Atlantic 10 Tournament

Team will face Richmond at 8:30 p.m. Friday on NBCSN after defeating St. Louis in second round.

March 10, 2017

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Sophomore Jordan Roland helped ignite GW's come-from-behind victory with 10 straight points in the second half. (Mitchell Leff/A-10 Conference)

 In college basketball, what is so cliché in March is also so true.

Survive games and advance.

That's exactly what the George Washington University men's basketball team did on Thursday night in Pittsburgh in a 53-46 win against Saint Louis. The Colonials survived a first half in which the team scored only 13 points to advance to Friday night's Atlantic 10 Tournament quarterfinals where GW will take on Richmond at 8:30 p.m.

The sixth-seeded Colonials finished regular season play as the conference's most accurate three-point shooting team, but that marksmanship arrived late in this second round matchup. GW was errant on all eight first half three-point shots and fell behind by 12 points at halftime. Fortunately, the Colonials' defense kept the game within reach until the team's shots started to fall.

Still trailing by a dozen, 35-23, close to the midway point in the second half, sophomore Jordan Roland ignited a surge that saw GW outscore St. Louis 30-11 in the final 11:07 of play. Mr. Roland hit three-point shots on back-to-back possessions to get it started, as he scored 10 straight points for GW  in just over three minutes. In the same time frame, GW held Saint Louis to just three points to pull the Colonials within five at 38-33 with 7:39 to go in the game. A three pointer  from Jaren Sina and subsequent breakaway lay-in from Matt Hart tied the game at 38-38 for the first time since it was 0-0.

Jair Bolden gave GW its first lead of the game at 45-43 at the two-minute mark. St. Louis briefly got the lead back, but that would the Bilikens' last basket in the game. Mr. Bolden answered the brief  St. Louis lead with a jumper, and then the Colonials knocked down four straight free throws before punctuating the victory with a Yuta Watanabe breakaway dunk to advance to rematch with the Richmond Spiders.

Mr. Watanabe led all scorers with 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while Mr. Roland's 10 points came on  4-of-6 shooting in 19  minutes. Tyler Cavanaugh had a game high 16 rebounds for GW, while Jaren Sina's five assists without a turnover earned game high honors.

Now GW gets another crack at third-seeded Richmond, which won both regular season games against the Colonials this year. The matchup on Friday is approximately 8:30 p.m. on NBCSN as the last of four quarterfinal matchups.