WASHINGTON (DC News Now) – On Wednesday night, it was a D.C. men’s college hoops clash as George Washington traveled up the road to take on American University in a non-conference showdown.
This cross-town rivalry matchup lived up to the hype as Colin Smalls, a senior guard for American, pushed this game to overtime at Bender Arena in the final moments of regulation.
The Eagles had a 28-22 lead on the Revolutionaries entering the second half, but American found themselves trailing by three points with time winding down in regulation. Eagles had the possession, and Smalls nailed a triple to tie the game at 60, as the clock reached 1.5 seconds. GW could not get a shot off in that amount of time, and the game was pushed to overtime.
“I grabbed the ball, had to make sure it wasn’t a turnover so we had to get a shot up,” Smalls recounts those final moments in regulation. “I looked at the shot clock, I think there was about four seconds left I had to get one up.”
To start overtime, the Eagles went on an 8-2 run, all eight points for American were scored by Senior forward Matt Rogers. Head coach Duane Simpkins is happy for the win, but more excited to see his team capable of overcoming adversity this early in the season.
Simpkins enters year two with the Eagles and has high hopes for this year’s squad. “We’ve (coaching staff, the team) all grown to put us in a position to win games like this, you know this is what it’s going to take in March.”
As for George Washington, the Revolutionaries shot poorly from the free throw line (48.1%) and struggled to shoot beyond the arc, only knocking down two triples on fifteen attempts in their loss to American.
However, at one point American had a 15-point lead on GW, and the Revolutionaries nearly won the game in regulation if not for a miracle shot by Colin Smalls. Despite their loss, head coach Chris Caputo is proud the team fought back and almost pulled it off.
“We have fight,” Caputo says about his team. “We don’t give up, we have a spirit about us but I think there’s other things that we can learn from in terms of the start of the game.”
INJURIES:
American Univerity’s Elijah Stephens suffered a deep cut to his head on a collision during the first half and never returned to action. After the game, Duane Simpkins confirmed that Stephens received stitches, and that “he will be fine.”
NEXT UP:
American will get to rest, their next opponent is Saint Joseph on Dec. 18. Meanwhile, George Washington will look to bounce back this week as they take on Old Dominion on Saturday.
