A hot George Washington squad met up with area rival Maryland tonight in the Verizon Center for the BB&T Classic. Tonight's match up was the sixty-eighth meeting between the two schools, and a rivalry recently dominated by Maryland.
The Colonials, despite not having super sophomore Patricio Garino, were the dominant team tonight for most of the way jumping out to 41-29 lead over the Terps. Mike Turgeon would finally wake his team up with a technical foul with just under eight minutes to play. The technical and a turnover would send Maurice Creek to the line for four straight free throws to put GW up 66-52, but the Terps would start to respond.
Despite the sizable gap, Maryland would get hot and get three pointers from Varun Ram and Nick Faust which would pull the Terps within five points with just over four minutes to play. The Terps did this all without Dez Wells, who fouled out with 6:09 to play.
Instead of freaking out in Wells' absence, Mark Turgeon turned to a fullcourt press that reaped huge rewards for Maryland. Simply put, the Colonials could not handle the fullcourt pressure from the Terps, so much so that Maryland would tie the game at 73 with 1:07 to go courtesy of a Charles Mitchell layup.
The Foggy Bottom boys would go the last five minutes of the game without a field goal until Mo Creek drained a dramatic, long two-pointer with just 0.6 on the clock to lock up a two point win for Mike Lonergan's squad.
Lonergan said after the game that he was originally going to draw up a play for Joe McDonald because of his nine for eleven performance from the line, but Mo Creek would ask for the ball in the huddle. The isolation play clearly worked and the former Indiana Hoosier was the hero for GW this evening.
Creek would end the game with 25 points, his highest total as a Colonial and the most points he's scored since December 19, 2009 when Indiana took on North Carolina Central. George Washington big man Isaiah Armwood also had an impressive evening with a double-double courtesy of 11 points and 12 rebounds.
The Colonials are now 8-1 on the year and off to their best start when they had the same record to start the 2005-06 season. They'll have two home games this week hosting Boston University Wednesday and then hosting UMBC on December 21.