Amidst the low points in the loss to George Washington, Trent Buttrick was a bright spot for the Massachusetts men’s basketball on Wednesday night.

UMass (10-12, 3-7 Atlantic 10) came out of the gate strong against the Colonials (9-13, 5-5 A-10) going 4-of-5 from three. Buttrick accounted for two of those made threes and showed early on his deep range from beyond the arc. The big man finished the first half with 10 points and six rebounds. He was a force for the Minutemen early on, serving as a thorn to George Washington’s defensive tactics.

“If we didn’t start switching screens Buttrick was about to have 60 points,” George Washington coach Jamion Christian said. “You can tell the type of player that he is. What a great player and a great shooter. He can just get it going [offensively].”

Buttrick was coming off a five-point performance in the win against Rhode Island in which he shot 16.7 percent from the field and knocked down just one 3-pointer. Throughout most of the season, Buttrick has been a consistent scorer for the Minutemen. Aside from the URI game, Buttrick hadn’t scored less than double digits since the loss to Duquesne at home. Overall, the big man is averaging 11.8 points a game, good for third on the team.

Of everyone on UMass, Buttrick found the free throw line the most. He finished the game 5-of-6 from the line. The closest player for the Minutemen to Buttrick’s six free throw attempts was C.J. Kelly who went 3-for-3 from the stripe.

“I thought Trent [Buttrick] played well,” UMass coach Matt McCall said. “We got him some open looks there late in the game, but he also missed some rebounds too. We were screaming over [on the bench] ‘we got to rebound, we got to rebound’ but I thought he was chasing basketballs, trying to play with a motor there.”

The forward finished the game with a team-high 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field and 2-of-5 from beyond the perimeter. It was the big man’s second double-double of the season after he secured 11 rebounds against the Colonials. No other UMass player finished with more than four rebounds which contributed to the squad getting out rebounded by a margin of 41-29 by GW.

“[My stat line] is great and all, but we needed this win,” Buttrick said on his bounce back performance. “The stats don’t really matter to me that much, we just got to get the job done. If I finish with five points and we win then I am happy with that.”

UMass has struggled to find any sort of consistency from its big man down low in the paint, but through much of the highs and lows of the season Buttrick has stood out as one of its most important players throughout the squad. The Minutemen have been able to rely upon the forward for consistent offensive production and he showcased that despite the loss to GW on Wednesday night.

UMass now sits in the bottom half of the A-10 standings, tied with Rhode Island and Fordham for 10th in conference play. The next game for the Minutemen is another contest at home when they take on Saint Joseph’s this Saturday. Tipoff is set for 12 p.m.

Frederick Hanna III can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @FrederickHIII.