Let's start with the men: the largest thing that stood out was the length of the game. Unofficially, the game lasted nearly 2.5 hours. There were 32 fouls called in the first half. Yikes. But the good news is the Colonials' shot an astounding 83% from the free throw line.
But moving onto the game itself: GW defeated Gannon 97-42 on Saturday night at the Smith Center. The Colonials stumbled a little out of the gates, before cruising to an easy win. One incident of note was Kevin Larsen seemed to be sore in the lower back, and limped into the locker room at halftime.
GW's destruction of Gannon did not answer many questions, and many uncertainties still remain. The way I see it, GW could make the Final Four of could miss the NIT all together. That's pretty much their window.
Moving on to the Women's game, GW systematically picked apart CNU 95-47 on Sunday afternoon. The biggest takeaway was that GW showed a significant weakness on three-point defense. CNU practically lived from behind the arc through the entire game, draining 10 total.
The 4 Quarters format honestly didn't bother me as much as I expected it to. The game actually has a better flow to it, and there's only 6 media timeouts, as opposed to 8 previously.
Coach Tsipis put extra emphasis on taking advantage of getting the last show of each quarter. Overall, GW had 5 scorers in double figures, a versatility that could really be useful later down the road. The Colonials also experimented with playing three forwards/centers at the same time, with the addition of freshmen Kelsi Mahoney adding depth.
There we two absenses of note: Hannah Schaible & freshmen Mei-Lyn Bautista. Neither dressed, and Coach Tsipis could not comment on either.
One pleasant suprise was Camila Tapias, who had 14 points, the majority of which were in the 2nd half.
There is a lot of optimism in Foggy Bottom right now, and I look for it to continue as the regular season gets rolling this weekend.
