George Washington Loses Seventh Straight

For fans accustomed to 20-win seasons in Foggy Bottom, George Washington's prolonged slide has been disconcerting. The Colonials already have lost as many games this season as they did the last two combined.

Having won once since the new year began, GW had hoped to reverse its skid last night with a win against La Salle. Instead, the Colonials failed to overcome a slow start and suffered their seventh consecutive loss, an 80-58 setback to the Explorers, who enjoyed their first win at Smith Center. La Salle had won at every other Atlantic 10 Conference facility, but was 0-11 at GW before last night's game.

"We never really got our footing," GW Coach Karl Hobbs said. "We started out flat, and we could never develop any rhythm after that."

The Colonials' two previous conference home losses were to the top two teams in the A10 -- Xavier and Saint Joseph's. But now with its defeat to seventh-place La Salle (9-12, 4-4), GW (5-13, 1-7) has lost three in a row at home -- its worst home losing streak since Hobbs's second season. In Hobbs's seven seasons at the school, the Colonials have lost only 16 times at Smith Center.

GW's only field goals in the first 13 minutes 20 seconds were a putback by Xavier Alexander of a Cheyenne Moore miss and a layup by Hermann Opoku, who made just the third start of his career. By the time Damian Hollis made the Colonials' third basket, La Salle held a 29-7 lead and Hobbs had burned three timeouts trying to figure a way to get his team out of its funk.

"It was real frustrating because they were hitting all their shots and we weren't hitting many of ours," said Hollis, who led GW with 14 points.

GW has the third-lowest scoring offense in the 14-team league, averaging 20 fewer points per game than the top scoring team, Duquesne. And on this night, the Colonials' scoring futility was remarkable. They made 7 of 32 field goal attempts in the first half, a woeful 21.9 percent.

Rob Diggs, the Atlantic 10 player of the week and GW's leading scorer, had a particularly rough first half. He went into the locker room at halftime with zero points despite playing 19 minutes. He came out strong in the second half, scoring on a powerful dunk in the opening seconds. But his 13 second-half points came too late for the Colonials.

Maureece Rice fared even worse. Rice, who averages 11.8 points per game, went scoreless for the second time this season.

Hobbs used his 10th different starting lineup of the season to no avail. Few of the starters lasted long on the court before Hobbs started tinkering. He made three substitutions in the first three minutes. By the 12-minute mark, nine Colonials had played. None of the combinations seemed to work.

"I thought we looked fatigued, and that's why I was trying to sub guys in," Hobbs said. "We looked like our energy was a little sapped. We just didn't bring a lot of emotion to the game tonight."

GW played much better in the second half, but its first-half deficit was too much to overcome. The Colonials shot 60 percent after the break (15 of 25), but still were outscored by La Salle. The Explorers made 60 percent of their shots for the game and held GW more than six points below its season scoring average.

¿ AMERICAN 62, HOLY CROSS 46: Garrison Carr scored 22 points and teamed with Brian Gilmore to key a decisive 17-4 run midway through the second half to lead the Eagles in Worcester, Mass.

Tim Clifford scored 18 for Holy Cross (11-10, 2-6).

American (13-10, 5-3) continued its torrid shooting. The Eagles led 21-18 at the half. They then extended their lead to 32-27 on a three by Carr and a short jumper by Frank Borden. But the Crusaders rallied to tie it with 11:25 left on a layup by Eric Meister and a three-pointer by Clifford.