George Washington Falls to Dayton, 63-61, After Late Technical Foul

George Washington relinquished a one-point lead in the final 21 seconds last night, not because of faltering defense, poor rebounding or any of the other maladies that have afflicted the Colonials this dreary season.

No, they lost their eighth straight game, a 63-61 setback to Dayton before 2,517 at Smith Center, because they had too many players on the court.

After GW's Damian Hollis made a free throw to break a tie, Aaron Ware trotted onto the court to replace him. But Hollis did not realize he was being replaced and remained in play.

The Dayton coaching staff recognized the problem and attempted to alert the officiating crew. GW's Wynton Witherspoon also realized it and leapt over the seats across from the benches to get off the court. His effort was too late and a technical foul was called. Marcus Johnson made both free throws to give the Flyers (17-2, 3-1 Atlantic 10) their first lead since midway through the second half.

After getting fouled on the ensuing inbounds pass, Johnson added another free throw before the Colonials missed two shots in the final five seconds, including Rob Diggs's attempt from in close.

Ware "was subbing in for the shooter and, for some reason, it didn't happen," said GW Coach Karl Hobbs, who declined to go into further detail.

Said Witherspoon: "I saw somebody didn't have a man but everybody was covered. I said, 'Oh man, we've got six people on the court.' "

Witherspoon had a season-high 19 points for the Colonials (6-10, 0-4), who relinquished a six-point lead with a little more than two minutes left. They have lost their last three games by a total of 11 points and this losing streak is their longest since a 10-game skid in 2001-02, Hobbs's first season.

"This is a young basketball team with not a lot of experience and we're just kind of going through those growth pains," he said. "We are competing, and now the next step is we have to learn how to win. That's where we are struggling -- how to finish games."

The Colonials almost did it last night. They led by eight early in the second half and repelled several rallies by the Flyers before embarking on a 10-5 run to forge a 60-54 lead with 2 minutes 14 seconds remaining. But Johnson's three-pointer and Chris Wright's three-point play with 1:23 left tied it.

After a GW turnover and a Dayton miss, Hollis was fouled with 21 seconds to go. He missed the first attempt and made the second, but as the Colonials set up for a final defensive stand, they botched the substitution.

"I would have much rather gotten the ball inbounds, run the play, score and win the game," Dayton Coach Brian Gregory said. "We were fortunate, but it was the right call."

Johnson had 17 points for the Flyers, who won their ninth in the past 10 games despite making just 7 of 15 free throws and committing 10 first-half turnovers.

For GW, it was another agonizing finish.

"We will put our team in practice tomorrow, we'll put two minutes on the clock, we'll be plus six [on the scoreboard] and then we'll put the situation on the clock where we are subbing in for a guy," Hobbs said. "We'll review it because this situation is going to happen again."