GW Benches Monmouth to Advance to NIT Quarterfinals

The Colonials will host Florida at the Smith Center on Wednesday night.

March 21, 2016

GW Benches Monmouth to Advance to NIT Quarterfinals

GW senior Joe McDonald netted 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting for the Colonials. (Photo/GW Athletics Communications)

Playing in the Postseason NIT Second Round for the second consecutive season, the fourth-seeded GW Colonials went to top-seeded Monmouth and escaped with an 87-71 win on Wednesday night. With the victory GW advances to the NIT Quarterfinals for the first time in program history. The Colonials will host Florida at the Smith Center on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm on ESPN2 with a trip to the NIT Semis in Madison Square Garden on the line.

The foursome of Tyler Cavanaugh (22 points, game-high 12 rebounds), Patricio Garino (19 points on 8-of-12 shooting), Kevin Larsen (19 points on 5-of-9 shooting) and Joe McDonald (16 points on 5-of-7 shooting) carried GW offensively, but it was 6-foot-8 Yuta Watanabe who had arguably the best performance for the Colonials by holding 5-foot-8 Monmouth guard Justin Robinson to 2-of-16 shooting as part of a Hawks' attack that shot just .342 from the field.

GW never trailed in the contest and led by as many as 17 in the ultimate 16-point road win. The Colonials shot .519 from the floor, including 9-of-19 (.574) from three-point range, and once again secured the free throw battle with more makes (22-of-31 at the line) than their opposition attempted (17-of-21).

In GW's 87-point outburst, 81 points came from 1,000-point career scorers in Cavanaugh, Garino, Larsen, McDonald and Alex Mitola (five points), who sent the Colonials to Monmouth via his game-winning floater in GW's opening round NIT win against Hofstra last Wednesday.

With the Colonials' two wins in the NIT this season the program has doubled-up its all-time tally after earning the team's first-ever NIT win last season at Pittsburgh.

Monmouth was led by Micah Seaborn's game-high 24 points and concludes its season with a 28-8 record. Meanwhile GW will take its 25-10 mark into action versus the Gators on Wednesday.