CINCINNATI, March 11 -- Just before he inbounded the ball to start the second half Friday night, George Washington forward Mike Hall shouted to his teammates, or perhaps to anyone within earshot, "We want to go to the tournament!"
Hall's sense of urgency was matched by his teammates, whose devastating 20-5 run in the second half blew open a tight game and pushed George Washington into Saturday night's Atlantic 10 championship game with a 77-58 victory over Temple at US Bank Arena.
Temple's Mark Tyndale collides with Pops Mensah-Bonsu while attempting a layup. GW advanced to its third A-10 final appearance, its first since 1998.
(Al Behrman -- AP)
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The victory set up a rematch with Saint Joseph's, which beat George Washington at Smith Center on March 1. The Hawks advanced to the final with a 73-68 victory over Xavier. At stake will be an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Though George Washington (21-7) has presented a strong case for receiving an at-large bid, it will take the court Saturday trying to secure its first NCAA tournament berth since 1999.
"That's our mind-set every game," said Hall, who had 11 points, 8 rebounds and 3 assists in 27 minutes. "If we play with that mind-set, we can accomplish our goals. That's all we're focused on right now."
George Washington has played in the Atlantic 10 tournament every year since 1977 and advanced to the finals twice, but has never won it.
In a game strangely similar to George Washington's 74-58 victory at Temple on Feb. 5, the Colonials led 31-30 at the half but took Temple out of its game with a relentless offense and a trapping defense, which forced the ball out of the hands of point guard Mardy Collins.
Temple (16-13), which was playing without suspended Coach John Chaney, shot 34.5 percent, hit 4 of 24 three-point attempts and turned over the ball 19 times. Mark Tyndale led the Owls with 20 points and 13 rebounds but after causing some problems in the first half, Temple couldn't create a half-court game with its vaunted zone defense.
"My message at halftime was just settle down a little bit," George Washington Coach Karl Hobbs said. "We were playing with too much energy. We were flying around on defense, but then we were also flying around on offense, which is what we don't want to do. We were trying to do things in a hurry. When we made the game a little simpler in the second half, that's when we slowed down."
Four Colonials reached double figures, led by forward J.R. Pinnock, who scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Forward Pops Mensah-Bonsu added 14 points and seven rebounds and T.J. Thompson added 11 points.
The game turned when Pinnock snagged an offensive rebound and drew a foul while laying the ball in with 15 minutes 56 seconds remaining.
Pinnock swished the free throw to give George Washington a 42-38 lead. Pinnock's hustle sparked the run that gave the Colonials a 59-43 lead with 9:35 remaining.
It was the kind of run that has become so familiar to George Washington fans this season and included a dunk by Omar Williams and three-pointers by Thompson and Ricky Lucas.
It was also the kind of run that was missing during the lone meeting between Saint Joseph's and George Washington this season. Thompson's senior night was ruined by the Hawks, who ran Coach Phil Martelli's motion offense to perfection, shot 54.2 percent and won, 71-56. Atlantic 10 co-player of the year Pat Carroll hit five three-pointers and finished with 21 points.
In Friday night's win over Xavier, Carroll made his first four three-pointers and hit his first five shots overall. Carroll scored 20 of his career-high 30 points in the first half and iced the game with an NBA-length three-pointer from the corner, giving Saint Joseph's a 67-63 lead with a minute remaining.
George Washington's best on-the-ball defenders are Hall, Pinnock and Carl Elliott, who made four steals Friday night. Those three will likely take turns chasing the 6-foot-5 Carroll around screens. But simply being in Carroll's face isn't always good enough.
Carroll, who connected on 45.3 percent of his three-point attempts during the regular season, moves smoothly without the ball, has a quick release and appears to think that every attempt is going down.
"I know a lot of people talk about [Duke's] J.J. Redick as the best shooter but if you look at the stats and at the way he wins games for them, you have to say that Carroll is the best shooter in the country," Hobbs said following the regular season loss to Saint Joseph's. "Every time he shoots, you just assume it's going in."
