Even without Pops Mensah-Bonsu for much of the second half, George Washington managed to knock off Maryland for the second straight year at the BB&T Classic.
J.R. Pinnock and Maureece Rice each scored 19 points as the 19th-ranked Colonials upended the No. 21 Terrapins 78-70 last night at MCI Center.
Mensah-Bonsu played only 16 seconds in the final 14:51, fouling out with 6:49 left. Yet the Colonials (5-0) withstood an inside push from Maryland (5-2) to remain undefeated and upend their local rival in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1977.
GW was a different team after Mensah-Bonsu left after picking up his fourth foul with a 44-37 lead. The Colonials sustained a 48-42 lead a little more than a minute later, but Maryland’s Chris McCray connected on three straight 3-pointers to bring the Terps even at 51-51.
Yet the Colonials ripped off the next six points, capped by J.R. Pinnock’s one-handed jam off a turnover. GW maintained at least a two-possession lead until Mensah-Bonsu finally returned when Rice hobbled off with 7:05 remaining.
The senior center didn’t stick around for long, picking up his fifth foul with the Colonials up 63-58. It temporarily sparked the Terps, who got baskets from Nik Caner-Medley and Ekene Ibekwe to close within a point.
That prompted a timeout from George Washington coach Karl Hobbs with 5:21 remaining, and the ploy worked. Pinnock made a basket to restore the lead to three. Maryland never got any closer and didn’t hit another shot from the floor until D.J. Strawberry’s basket with 1:30 left.
McCray led the Terps with 21 points, 18 in the second half.
It was the first steep test for the Colonials, who struggled at times against four light nonconference opponents to open the season. Some of those problems were created by the absence Mensah-Bonsu, who sat out the first three games because of violations connected with his participation in a pre-NBA Draft camp.
Both teams were sluggish in the opening minutes, though the Colonials scored the first five points while the Terps bumbled their way to four turnovers in less than three minutes. Maryland regained its composure to rattle off a 14-1 run that featured several easy baskets and a few trips to the foul line.
While not a dominant stretch, the Terps still avoided some of the early doldrums that have plagued them much of the year. Yet it wasn’t enough to put away George Washington, which answered with 12-3 run that prompted Maryland coach Gary Williams to burn two timeouts to settle his team.
It didn’t quell the Colonials, who built a 29-23 lead with the help of 3-pointers from Rice and Pinnock. After Pinnock’s 3, Carl Elliott appeared to have picked Strawberry of possession but was instead called for a foul. The frustrated Elliott then slammed the ball to the floor, earning a technical foul. McCray and then Strawberry both made a pair of free throws to slice GW’s edge to two.
The Terps couldn’t regain the lead before the break, and GW’s Mike Hall drilled a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Colonials a 34-29 lead at the half.
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