Summary:
Final: George Washington 79 Navy 77 OT
George Washington Stats:
James Bishop 18 points
Garrett Johnson 18 points, 11 rebounds
Babatunde Akingbola 11 blocks
Navy Stats:
Austin Benigni 21 points
Donovan Draper 19 points
The first half for George Washington told two stories. The first was how well the ball was moving. The Revolutionaries had nine assists on 12 made shots. When they had a chance, they were pushing up the ball and, for the most part, had control of the game. Well, sort of. Despite shooting 50% from the floor in the first half, the Revolutionaries were only up 33-28.
That’s because the second part of the story was when George Washington wasn’t scoring, they were turning the ball over. It was truly feast or famine.
The Revolutionaries turned the ball over 12 times in the first half. Navy scored 13 points off the 12 turnovers. Otherwise, Navy’s struggling offense would have meant a wider margin at halftime. The Mids only shot 25.8% in the first half.
In the second half, Babatunde Akingbola staged a block party. After having four blocked shots in the first half, Akingbola continued to control the air space in the second half with six blocks. Akingbola would finish with 11 blocks for the game. The 11 blocks was a school record for blocks in a game.
Fifteen blocks in a game is also a school record.
On offense, the George Washington’s shooting cooled off a bit as the half wore on. The Revolutionaries shot 42.3% in the second half but they cut down on the turnovers. George Washington only turned the ball over six times in the second half.
The hot shooting led to George Washington getting their biggest lead of the game, 12, with 9:39 left in the game.
Navy didn’t fold. With 5:30 minutes left, the Mids have got to within three at 57-54.
The Revolutionaries couldn’t get enough consistent offense to gain some daylight on the scoreboard and with 2:45 left, a layup by Donovan Draper on a backdoor cut, made the score 60-58 George Washington.
After Darren Buchanan Jr. made two free throws, Draper hit a three bringing Navy to within one.
After a shot clock violation, Navy would take the lead with 33.4 seconds on a layup by Austin Benigni.
Down one with 24.3 seconds left, Buchanan Jr. went back to the line and made one out of two to tie the game.
With the game tied and 1.7 seconds left in regulation, Navy had to go the length of the floor. They settled for a a half court heave that hit the backboard.
Navy took a 67-66 lead early in the overtime.
The Revolutionaries would push the lead to four before a 5-0 run by Navy gave the Mids a 72-71 lead with 1:29 left in overtime.
George Washington wrestled back the lead on James Bishop’s three-point play. After a turnover by Navy, Bishop would get a driving layup giving George Washington a 76-72 lead.
Jack Medalie’s three-pointer would pull Navy to within one with 16.2 seconds left in overtime.
Austin Inge would miss a shot at the buzzer.
