Washington proved themselves tonight with an upset win over New Orleans. They came in as heavy underdogs in the major sports lines, as well as most pundits' predictions, but that hardly mattered to coach Bob and his team. "All they hype was 'New Orleans this; New Orleans that' coming into the game. It's like we didn't even exist. I think we proved our point." That they did, led by the spectacularp play of their star, Gibson.

"Coach said that all we had to do was go out and play our best and we could win, and we knew he was right," he said later. "So that's what we did, and we showed that we can play with anyone."

Losing coach Bob was disappointed with his team's effort. "I think we started believing our own press," he said. "Everyone was saying we'd come away with the easy win, so we went in expecting it to be handed to us on a silver platter. But you've got to give credit where it's due, and Bob had his team playing as well as they've played all year."

Washington was led by Gibson (23 points, 9 assists, 2 steals), Deabreu (11 points, 13 boards, 0 assists, 2 blocks), Farlough (10 points, 10 boards, 1 assists, a block). New Orleans was led by Fletcher (34 points, 13 boards, 0 assists, a steal), Howie (18 points, a steal), Taylor (15 points, a steal).

With the victory, Washington improve to 18-29. They stay at #5 in the Southeast and improve to #13 overall in the Eastern Conference. New Orleans are now 26-22 and 13-10 at home with this loss. They stay at #3 in the Southwest and remain at #6 overall in the Western Conference.

box score Washington roster New Orleans roster