(Photo courtesy of Maddie Washburn)
SUNRISE, FL – Facing No. 18 Florida, the reigning national champions poised to repeat after a busy offseason in the transfer portal, was always going to be a tough task for George Washington. Especially after a shocking 70-58 loss to Delaware on Wednesday, which GW head coach Chris Caputo described as “a puzzling, strange performance” and Florida head coach Todd Golden described as “an aberration,” even staying competitive with the Gators was going to be a challenge for a struggling Revolutionaries team.
GW looked up to task for most of the Orange Bowl Classic on Saturday afternoon. Technically a neutral-site game, GW played in front of a majority pro-Gators crowd at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Florida, home of the NHL’s Florida Panthers. Despite the unfriendly environment, GW matched Florida’s physicality for much of the first half, leaving the first 20 minutes just three minutes behind, 27-30. But GW’s promising start wasn’t enough: Florida finished the meet in the top 80-70.
Caputo’s game plan against Florida was clear from the start. He would dare his opponent to shoot threes. Going into the game, Florida was the 13th worst three-point shooting team in the country, shooting 27.3%. Whenever Florida tried to get the ball inside, especially with junior forward Alex Condon in the preseason, he was swamped with double teams, forcing him to pass the ball to the perimeter. Florida made GW pay early, with junior forward Thomas Haugh and senior guard Xavian Lee hitting the first two threes of the game for the Gators. But the water found its level and Caputo’s risky defensive strategy began to pay off.
After those first two threes from Haugh and Lee, Florida missed their next five. Florida’s first eight field goal attempts came from three. They ended the half up 4-19 from three, validating GW’s decision to allow more threes to protect the rim.
“We wanted to make sure we got our eyes on them and kept them off the rim,” senior forward Tyrone Marshall Jr. said. after the game when asked about GW’s early defensive strategy.
With about eight minutes left in the first half, junior guard Jean Aranguren found senior big man Rafael Castro cutting to the rim for an open layup. Aranguren hit Castro instantly, giving GW an 18-17 lead, their first of the match. Florida struck back with a basket by senior backup center Micah Handlogten to make it 19-18. GW went back to Castro, who worked his way close to the hoop and converted a highly contested hook shot to put GW ahead again, 20-19.
GW’s next defensive possession was reminiscent of former head coach Jamion Christian’s signature “chaos,” with all five Revolutionaries flying around the court and disrupting Florida’s ball movement, ultimately forcing an errant pass from Handlogten intended for an open Haugh at the perimeter. After the turnover, Castro was once again in the middle of everything for GW, this time operating at the top of the key and finding a rolling Marshall Jr. for an open dunk to put GW up 22-19.
That would ultimately be GW’s last clue. Florida went on a quick 8-0 run to get back to 27-22. GW made it a one-possession game going into halftime on a three from graduate guard Tre Dinkins, but that was as close as it would be the rest of the time.
Florida blitzed GW coming out of the half with an 11-0 kill shot, with all their points coming at the rim or the free throw line to go up 41-27 before Caputo was forced to call a timeout.
“That 11-0 run really set the tone for the rest of the game,” Caputo said. “Not good enough if you’re going to beat a team like this.”
When asked about what he told his team at halftime that led to Florida going on the game-changing 11-0 run, Golden said he didn’t want to change too much and wasn’t too concerned about his first-half performance. He mentioned that his team had five “kills” (three stops in a row), was plus-seven in rebounding and turned the ball over only five times.
“We’re up three, we were probably playing at the level of 10, but that wasn’t the case,” Golden said. “I just had to make sure we didn’t allow that to cause a hangover in the second half. I thought our guys did a great job on defense, on the glass.”
Florida would go up 54-34 later in the second half for their largest lead of the game. GW responded to that 20-point deficit by going on a quick 9-0 run with five points from Marshall and four points from Castro to make it competitive again. But a sequence that included three straight dunks from Haugh and sophomore guard Boogie Fland extinguished any hope of a GW comeback.
GW played the dirty game and got some late shots to make the final score of 80-70 a little closer than it could have been, but Florida never really had to worry after their 11-0 run early in the second half.
Junior guard Trey Autry, who had six points during GW’s late push, led the team in scoring with 15 points. Marshall had 14 points and a team-high seven rebounds and three steals. Castro had 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
One of the biggest problems for GW was the performance of their bank. Notably, redshirt junior forward Garrett Johnson, who has arguably been GW’s best player this season, scored just five points while shooting 2-9 from the field and had a game-low of -20 +/-. Johnson missed practice on Wednesday before GW’s loss to Delaware but had no injuries prior to Saturday.
After the match, Caputo provided some more clarity on Johnson’s future status.
“It’s always kind of day to day there, trying to think about what a two-day prep looks like versus a one-day prep, getting on a plane, all those things,” Caputo said. “There’s just different concerns for him than maybe the person who hasn’t experienced what he’s experienced.”
Johnson missed more than two years and his redshirt freshman season ended prematurely due to a benign tumor on his left hip. He also tore his ACL last season and missed the entire 2024-25 season.
Dinkins, who was named to the preseason All-Conference Second Team, started the season as one of GW’s most consistent scoring options but has since cooled off. After scoring just three points against Florida, he has now gone six straight games without scoring in double figures. Dinkins shot 1-5 from the field, 1-4 from three and had a -13 +/-.
Even though GW was unable to overcome the adversity against Florida, there are still many positives that can be taken from their performance against one of the best teams in the country.
They were able to match Florida’s physicality, especially with their super-sized frontcourt of 6’10”, 250 pound Rueben Chinyelu, 6’11”, 236 pound Condon, 6’9″, 215 pound Haugh and 7’1″, 260 pound Handlogten.
“We just had to make sure we kept them in front of us,” Marshall said of his matchup with Florida’s frontcourt. “They set a lot of ball screens up top, so we just had to not let them get into their groove, get in there and let them settle for shots.”
Caputo also talked about how playing a team like Florida in a professional arena in a neutral-site game with a raucous crowd felt like “an NCAA tournament environment.” Although it was a very pro-Florida crowd, there was still a significant GW contingent. Former head coach Mike Jarvis and former players Damian Hollis, Joe McDonald, Isaiah Armwood and Bryan Bynes were all in attendance, along with a host of alumni, both young and old.
GW only has one more game, a matchup against Division III St. Mary’s (MD) before conference play against Richmond begins on December 31.
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