George Washington pulls away from Fordham 72-52

WASHINGTON – George Washington used two big second-half runs to pull away from pesky Fordham and pick up a 72-52 win on Wednesday night.

The win moved George Washington (10-6) to 3-0 in conference play for the first time since the 2005-06 season, when the Colonials went undefeated against A-10 foes.

The Rams (6-8, 0-2) continued their conference woes, dropping their 28th consecutive A-10 contest.

With both teams struggling to find a shooting rhythm for most of the night, George Washington clung to a 43-39 lead with 10 minutes remaining in the game. But Dwayne Smith's dunk sparked the Colonials, Bryan Bynes scored five straight points and Dan Guest capped off the run with a 3-point play to give George Washington a 53-39 edge.

Tony Taylor finished with 12 points and Smith added 11 to lead the Colonials, who have won 11 of their past 12 games against the Rams.

Chris Gaston led Fordham with 14 points and eight rebounds — well off his season average of 12 boards per game.

Even with their earlier run, the Colonials were nursing a 61-52 lead with 3:39 remaining after two free throws from Gaston. But George Washington finished the game in style, using its defense to ignite an 11-0 run filled with alley-oop dunks and breakaway layups to blow the game open.

Neither team shot particularly well — George Washington started 0 for 9 from 3-point range and finished 4 of 17 from beyond the arc, while Fordham shot a season-low 29.4 percent (20 of 68), including 6 of 28 from long range (21.4 percent).

Despite their cold shooting, the Rams went on an 8-2 run to start the second half to take a 29-28 lead, but could not hold on.