11.17.84: vs Ohio State (Legends Invitational)
The people at the Legends had some great forethought when they signed GW up two years ago. They now get the defending national champions in a tournament that, historically, hasn't had much clout. The Colonials lead things off with Ohio State, a team that has never had sustained success in college basketball. They did reach the 1951-52 NCAA championship game, but lost to North Carolina's first title team, 66-60. Their last postseason experience was back in 1978-79, when they lost in the first round of the NCAA. They have been putrid every since, and will probably do so once again.
The Buckeyes return one starter, and only five guys who have ever played a college basketball game. In fact, they only have two guys who have averaged more than 11.5 minutes a game in their career. Wilber Hiller started 12 games last year, but he is not of starter quality. He has 2.9 ppg for his career, which makes him their top returning scorer. Forward Carrol Simmons is their best overall player, and their most experienced. He has put 88 games into the program. Freshman guards Rusty Brandon and Troy Jahnke are about to get a quick education in college hoops.
Jimmy Bradford scores to open things for Ohio State. Jack misses his first shot of the year, and Ohio State is off and fouling. Jack gets swiped, and Ohio State scores on the other end. Jack hits his next shot, but OSU responds. Jack scores again...and Kenny Frazier scores his first points. Jack gets fouled by Bradford, and the score is tied. Taylor Murray hits a three. Elias Bautista scores. It's 11-6. Jack finds Hulett, but Bautista is fouled by Armbruster, and the foul. The Buckeyes are not going to be intimidated. It's 14-8. Make that 17-8, after Hulett fouls Murray and the bucket goes.
Bautista hits again. He has eight, and it's 19-8. Woods scores to end the damage, but Bautista hits again...he has ten. Bautista fouls Jack, who hits both. He has eight. Timmy Frye is fouled by Hector, and HE scores. 24-12. Holy cow. Troy Jahnke hits a three. 27-12. Armbruster scores. Charlie Stumpf hits a three. What is this? Armbruster scores again, 30-16.
Frazier heads to the line, and he hits both. Frazier takes two threes on one possession, misses both. Jahnke hits a three. This is astounding. Armbruster scores off an Ali assist, but Carrol Simmons responds. Jack is fouled, and he hits both. He has a 10-3-1 line...Brandon hits for OSU. They are shooting 79% from the field. Jack scores from the wing. It's 39-27. Jack gets a steal and a dunk, cutting the lead to ten. Bautista is fouled by Woods. Armbruster fouls Bradford, but he's an awful free throw shooter. It's 41-29 with five minutes left.
Jack scores again...he has 16-4-1. Assists will be hard to come by this season. Grayson is fouled, and he gets one of two. Hulett commits his third foul, and here's Boutwell. Hector scores...David Echevarria is in for GW, too..this second team is getting crushed. Ali scores, but it's 49-36. Jack comes back. Brandon hits a three, and the lead is back to sixteen. Armbruster is fouled...he misses both free throws. Jack gets a steal, and he hits a three. GW has sixteen fouls this half. The score is 56-39, and that was painful. Jack has 19-5-1.
Armbruster scores to open things, then gets fouled by Kirk Paschal. Jack finds Armbruster for the score. He has ten. Jack gets a steal and a feed to Grayson. Hulett gets foul #4. It's 59-45. Hector hits a three. OSU is coming back to earth a bit. Armbruster gets the bucket, and the foul. It's 59-51, and Armbruster has thirteen. Denny Perez draws a charge. Jack follows a Frazier miss with a dunk. Armbruster gets a dunk. It's down to four. Jack gets a steal, and a dunk. He has 23-8-3, and it's 59-57. Jahnke hits one of two free throws. Hector hits, cutting the deficit to just one.
Armbruster gives GW a 61-60 lead. Jack is starting to assert himself on defense. Bautista has three fouls now. There are fouls everywhere. This is ugly. OSU is completely cold. And now, so is GW. Boutwell and Perez are in. This is where OSU grabbed control before. Hector hits a three...he has ten. Armbruster has a double-double (17-11)...Hector hits another three, and GW leads 69-61. They were down what, 17 at the half? So far, it's 30-5 this half, GW's favor.
Jack comes back with a 23-9-3 line, and he hits two free throws immediately. King goes to the line...he misses both. Jack's up to a double-double. Ali scores, and GW is comfortably in front now, given how OSU is shooting. This is the Ohio State team that was expected. Guess it took GW a half to warm up. Jack heads to the line. He hits both. 77-63 with 4:33 left. Hulett fouls out. This is very bad news, if Hulett is going to be so crazy on fouls like this. Frazier has four, Woods has four. Jack hits a three...he has thirty points, and it's 80-64.
Woods fouls out. Frazier is fouled...he hits one of two. Talk about nervousness...he has only four points, and has jacked up shots everywhere. GW's free throw shooting is atocious. OSU gets it back to 81-70. Seems like they've woken up. A steal and a layup for Brandon, who fouls out immediately after. Jack hits two more free throws. Frazier fouls out. Jack runs out the clock, and that's a rather bad 83-74 win for GW. Armbruster's 17-17 line was very impressive.
Jack had four turnovers, four steals, and just three assists. That is bad news for this team. They can't beat better teams if they play this way. This boxscore is pretty tough to look at. This team has a long way to go, on both sides of the ball.
Code:
George Washington 83, Ohio State 74
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Ohio State (0-1, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
James Bradford C 21 3-6 2-4 1 4 1 4 8
Carrol Simmons PF 30 3-7 0-0 4 4 0 4 6
Kirk Paschal SF 25 2-4 0-0 2 6 4 2 4
Troy Jahnke SG 31 2-7 4-8 2 3 4 4 10
Rusty Brandon PG 21 4-9 1-2 0 0 0 5 10
Taylor Murray PG 19 3-5 3-5 0 1 2 2 10
Elias Bautista PF 17 4-7 6-9 0 3 0 4 14
Timothy Fye PG 9 1-1 3-5 0 0 0 1 5
Wilber Hiller SF 16 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 2 2
Charles Stumpf PF 12 1-2 2-4 1 5 1 3 5
Turnovers: 13 (J.Bradford 3, C.Simmons 1, K.Paschal 2,
T.Jahnke 2, R.Brandon 1, T.Murray 1, E.Bautista 1,
W.Hiller 2)
Blocked Shots: 2 (C.Simmons 2)
Steals: 8 (C.Simmons 1, K.Paschal 1, R.Brandon 1,
T.Murray 4, T.Fye 1)
3P FGs: 5-14 (K.Paschal 0-2, T.Jahnke 2-4, R.Brandon
1-4, T.Murray 1-2, W.Hiller 0-1, C.Stumpf 1-1)
George Washington (1-0, 0-0):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Brian Armbruster C 35 8-13 1-5 5 17 1 3 17
Bruce Woods PF 17 1-4 0-0 2 2 0 5 2
Jack Dawkins SF 35 9-16 12-12 4 10 3 2 32
Kenneth Frazier SG 25 0-5 4-6 1 2 1 5 4
Richie Hulett PG 17 1-6 0-0 1 3 4 5 2
Hector Patterson PG 22 5-8 0-3 3 5 1 2 13
Michael King PG 5 0-0 0-2 0 1 0 2 0
Glenn Grayson PF 13 1-2 3-4 2 2 1 3 5
Denny Perez C 13 0-1 1-2 0 1 1 0 1
Porter Ali SG 12 2-2 3-4 0 2 2 1 7
F. Boutwell SG 4 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
David Echevarria PF 2 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 1 0
Turnovers: 13 (B.Armbruster 2, B.Woods 1, J.Dawkins 4,
K.Frazier 2, H.Patterson 1, P.Ali 2, D.Echevarria 1)
Blocked Shots: 4 (B.Woods 1, J.Dawkins 1, G.Grayson 1,
D.Perez 1)
Steals: 7 (J.Dawkins 4, K.Frazier 3)
3P FGs: 5-17 (J.Dawkins 2-4, K.Frazier 0-4, R.Hulett
0-4, H.Patterson 3-5)
Player of Game: SF Jack Dawkins (GW)