University of Richmond
George Washington
Spiders Fall To Colonials, 80-63
02/12/2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Pops Mensah-Bonsu had 18 points, three blocks and three steals to lead George Washington over Richmond 80 to 63 in front of a sold-out crowd at the Smith Center.
The win was the third in a row for the Colonials (15-5, 7-3) keeping them in first place in the West Division of the Atlantic 10.
Three other Colonials scored in double figures. Omar Williams had 15 points and Mike Hall netted 11 points to go with 14 rebounds. J.R. Pinnock came off the bench to score 16 points.
Overall the George Washington reserves outscored the Richmond bench 36 to 17. Point guard T.J. Thompson chipped in nine points and dished out four assists, three of which went to Mensah-Bonsu for earth shattering alley-oops.
Kevin Steenberge had 19 points, and Andres Sandoval had ten points to lead Richmond (11-11, 6-5) who lost their second straight game.
Richmond struggled against the GW defense which used trapping and zone rotations to force the Spiders to connect on only two of 18 three point attempts, and give up 14 turnovers. The Spiders were outscored in the paint 42 to 30 and were without forward Jermaine Bucknor who sprained his right ankle in the first half in a loss to La Salle on Feb. 9.
Trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half, Richmond used a ten-to-three run, including a three pointer by Sandoval at the buzzer, to cut the Colonials lead to three at halftime, 37-34.
Richmond only hit nine of their 29 field goal attempts in the second half, and George Washington had key offensive rebounds in the last five minutes to keep a comfortable lead.
With the win GW avenged an 11 point loss at Richmond in January.
