Hawks rally to force OT, come up just short 92-91

Photo courtesy of Mitchell Layton

A Thriller in Foggy Bottom

Saint Joseph’s (9-11, 3-5) traveled to Foggy Bottom as one of the hottest teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference after winning their last three games. George Washington (11-9, 5-2) has surprised a few folks especially after defeating Dayton last Saturday 76-69. It was a matchup between the Co-Players of the Week in the A10. James Bishop of GW has been one of the most prolific scorers in all of college basketball this year, and Cameron Brown’s hot shooting has carried the Hawks during this nice run. It looked like this game was going to get out of hand early in the first half. George Washington was scoring with ease in the paint and forcing St. Joe’s to turn the ball over and get out in transition. The Colonials saw their lead balloon to 16 points at the 9:38 mark in the first half. Early foul trouble for Cam Brown resulted in him heading to the bench for the majority of the first half. Saint Joseph’s had no answer for Brendan Adams. The senior guard had a career-high 32 points including 4 three pointers in the first half. Saint Joe’s fans are accustomed to Adams crushing them as former St. Bonaventure great and older brother of Brendan, Jaylen Adams constantly put-up career games against the Hawks a few years ago.

Saint Joseph’s did a great job on James Bishop in the first half specifically Cameron Brown. As mentioned, Cam Brown was in foul trouble for most of the game. He never really got it going offensively, but Lynn Greer III had the best game of his young career on Wednesday night. The Sophomore guard finished with a career-high 31 points (13-22), 11 rebounds, and 3 assists. Greer was the guy SJU relied on especially with both Brown and Reynolds on the bench in the second half with foul trouble. The Hawks went into the half down six points but made adjustments coming out of the break. Kacper Klaczek and Brendan Adams were exchanging threes early in the second half, as the Sophomore from Poland hit three 3 pointers in a span of 2:11. It felt like every time the Hawks had some momentum, Adams would answer with a three of his own. A 3 pointer by Erik Reynolds II at the 14:43 mark tied the game up at 51-51. Lynn Greer then followed that up with a quick burst to the rim and converted on a layup with 13:44 left to play to give SJU their first lead of the game. SJU took a four-point lead soon after, but GW responded with a three from Amir Harris which was the start of a 9-0 GW…