Center Ed Fogell and forward James Barnes fought a double battle Saturday during the Lions' 77-69 victory over George Washington.

In addition to winning a physical defensive war over the Colonials, with Fogell scoring a season-high 25 points and Barnes adding 13 more plus a team-high 11 rebounds, both players fought severe back pain to stay in the game.

"Jimmy and I both had heat packs on our backs at halftime," Fogell said. "We were just trying to stay loose and not let our backs tighten up. That was the key."

Fogell went into last Thursday's practice with a backache he wasn't too concerned about. He tried stretching it out in his warmup, but the pain got worse instead of better. The same thing happened to him early this season when the Lions played Juniata. The problem is apparently muscle spasms, and should clear up in a few days.

Barnes has had problems since falling two weeks ago in a game against UMass. The injury was aggravated earlier last week when he got hit in practice. Both Barnes and Fogell had been receiving heat treatments throughout the week.

"We went into this game really concerned about our two horses," Coach Bruce Parkhill said. "They really came through, and in a lot of pain. They're both in a lot of pain."

Parkhill was not sure if either player would be in the the game until right before tipoff. Neither had practiced in the days before the game because they were in so much pain and Parkhill did not want to risk further injury.

"I thought when Jimmy went down in the first half that would be it," Parkhill said. "That's the same kind of play he hurt (his back) on in practice. I just think both those kids deserve a lot of credit."

"In a way I did think that would finish it for me," Barnes said. "I hit the floor real hard and the other guy fell down on top of me. Three minutes later I fell again, and Monie (Brown) fell on my head, so I just wanted to stay down, catch my breath and make sure everything was all right. Luckily, I was able to continue."

Originally it was thought that Fogell's problem was related to a back injury he got when he was a freshman. He had a disc problem that required surgery to correct. The injuries are not connected.

The Lions have a week before their next game, and both Fogell and Barnes are happy to get a break. This will be the last real break the team will have for the rest of the season. After next Saturday, the Lions will play almost every two or three days until March.

"Jimmy and I were just saying to each other that as long as we could get through the game we could have the whole week to get better," Fogell said. "It's nice to have the week off to recuperate and get some injuries cleared up, and then just jump back into the season. It's crunch time now. This is the fun stuff."

It didn't help either back to be banged about under the hoops. The Colonials possess a stifling man-to-man defense that didn't let up through the entire game. There was a battle for every rebound and no player could get a shot off without having a defender virtually in his jersey.

"There was a lot of physical play," GW coach John Kuester said. "Unfortunately, we didn't get the calls. But it was a good college basketball game. It was exciting . . . for 35 minutes."

In the last five minutes of the game, however, the Colonials' oppressive defense fell apart. Fogell and Barnes connected on the inside several times and put the game out of GW's reach.

"We wanted to be aggressive," Parkhill said. "And those two guys (Fogell and Barnes) have been playing really well together all year. They really look for each other . . . fortunately, because we haven't exactly been lighting up the perimeter all year."

Although the Colonials went 1-27 last season, the Lions weren't expecting them to roll over and play dead, no matter how less painful it would have been.

"Oh yeah, we expected them to be tough," Barnes said. "They're a real good team. They just came off a win up at (St.) Bonaventure."