Although George Washington's 19-game winning streak was snapped by Denver East last Saturday, the Patriots were expected to rebound against Thomas Jefferson.

They did that, not only with an easy 68-45 victory against the Spartans, but sixth-ranked GW also rebounded literally, snatching away 11 offensive rebounds Friday night at the Thunderdome.

"I'm proud of the effort, especially on defense," Patriots coach Michael Rogers said.

The Patriots held TJ to only 12 points in the first half, eight points fewer than GW totaled in the first quarter. Also, GW blocked seven shots in the Denver Prep League game and forced five turnovers in the first quarter.

"We were on fire," Patriots forward Thomas Bropleh said. "We were hitting all our shots, rotating the ball, had good chemistry."

Bropleh, a 6-foot-5 senior, hit four baskets in the opening quarter en route to a game- high 25 points. He showed a wide array of inside moves, sinking one shot with his back to the basket and rarely shooting from beyond five feet.

The loss to East was a heartbreaker, 71-63 in overtime, in front of a capacity crowd at the Thunderdome. Rogers said there still was a lot of determination shown in practice this week, and Bropleh said the Patriots didn't dwell on the defeat.

"It was tough, so we wanted to get that out of the way and play hard," Bropleh said.

The Patriots (20-1 overall, 4- 1 league) were facing a much smaller and inexperienced team. Only Chris Carter is taller than 6-3 and only one senior, Jiron McMillon, is on the TJ roster.

GW sports seven seniors, and has 6-7 Tyrone Marshall, who accounted for the majority of those blocked shots, as well as 6-5 Novian Balous and Bropleh.

The Patriots are hardly just a pound-it-inside team, though, as shown by Tyrelle Millard's four three-pointers.

"It's always hard to adjust to a different gym, with different rims," Millard said. "After (two consecutive games here), I'm starting to feel at home."

The Spartans (14-7, 3-3) got some early scoring from junior guard Ray Riley, a thrilling player on the dribble-drive, but TJ missed all five free throws it attempted in the first quarter.

"You can't start bad to good teams," Spartans coach Grant Laman said. "Maybe that was a sign, I don't know. I do know we missed our first five free throws and just never seemed to get on track."

Thomas Jefferson8 4 17 16 - 45

George Washington20 15 17 16 - 68

TJ - Deontae Fair 0 0-1 0, Zach Jackson 5 0-0 12, Ray Riley 4 0-4 9, Billy Sprague 4 1-3 10, Seborne Harris 1 0-0 2, Chris Carter 2 1-4 6, Jamel Compton 1 0-0 2, Nate Brewer 0 4-4 4. Totals 17 6-16 45.

GW - Anthony Santistevan 2 0-0 4, Tyrelle Millard 5 0-0 14, Tony Adams 2 0-0 4, Duvalier Johnson 1 1-2 3, Nick Sather 2 0-0 4, Thomas Bropleh 12 1-1 25, Tyrone Marshall 3 0-0 6, Novian Balous 1 6-8 8. Totals 28 8-11 68.

Three-point goals - TJ, Jackson 2, Riley,

Sprague, Carter; GW, Millard 4.