FAIRFAX--With last year's Final Four appearance on its resume, George Mason is the standard-bearer for midmajor potential. The Patriots ran into a team last night making one of the country's better efforts to be this season's George Mason.
Virginia Commonwealth shot 48 percent from the field last night, including a 60 percent clip from 3-point range, to down George Mason 75-62. The win was the Rams' eighth straight overall, eighth straight on the road and ninth straight within the conference. The Patriots saw their five-game winning streak come to an end.
VCU (17-3, 9-0 CAA), off to its best start in over 20 years, also became the first CAA team since 1992 to win its first nine conference games.
"I felt like our guys did a great job of coming in and playing to the caliber that we needed to, playing such a tough opponent in George Mason," said Rams' coach Anthony Grant. "Our guys did a great job of focusing."
Rams leading scorer B.A. Walker finished with a game-high 24 points. The sharpshooting senior, already the school's all-time leader in 3-pointers, hit 5-of-8 from long range. As a team, the Rams shot 12-of-20 from beyond the arc.
Jamal Shuler added 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting and hit three 3's. Jesse Pellot-Rosa had 14 points in 19 minutes before fouling out. Sophomore point guard Eric Maynor had 10 assists and 10 rebounds.
Junior guard Folarin Campbell led the Patriots with 19 points and nine rebounds. Forwards Daryl Monroe and Will Thomas each finished with 14 for George Mason (11-8, 5-4 CAA).
In contrast to the Rams' excellent outside shooting, the Patriots were just 5-of-17 from 3-point range.
"We were dealing with a team that, from the 3-point line, was shooting the ball extremely well coming into this game," Grant said. "We tried to put a focus on that."
During its five-game winning streak, George Mason shot 41 percent from 3-point range. It managed just 29 percent shooting from outside last night. The Patriots also did not help themselves from the free-throw line, where they made just 9-of-21.
"We got to the foul line 21 times, which is more than we've gotten to the foul line in about two or three weeks," George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. "The guys who normally shoot around 70 percent were not able to capitalize."
After keeping his team close in the first half, Monroe was silenced in the second.
Monroe had all 14 points in the first half on 7-of-8 shooting. He took just one shot in the second half, though. Thomas, who scored 10 of his 14 after halftime, picked up some of the slack in the second half, but faced constant double teams.
"We had to do a good job defending the low post because of the size and physicality they have," Grant said. "We had a tough time in the front court, especially in the first half. They kind of had their way. As has been the character of our guys all year long, they came out in second half and were determined to do a much better job defending the post."
VCU pushed the lead to nine on a 3-pointer by Maynor with 11:35 left, its biggest lead to that point. Thomas scored inside to cut the lead to as few as four with just under six minutes left, but Walker responded with a 3, and Will Fameni hit a short jumper to push the lead back to nine with 4:30 remaining.
Monroe helped keep the Patriots close in the first half when he scored all his points. The 6-foot-7, 260-pound junior muscled his way around the paint and scored 10 of George Mason's last 12 points of the first half.
After a sluggish start in which the Patriots hit four of their first 11 shots, Monroe's inside play erased an early nine-point lead. His short jumper with about 30 seconds left until the break gave George Mason its final lead of the game at 30-29. Maynor hit a runner in the lane moments later to give the Rams a 31-30 halftime lead.
To reach MATT EPPERS:
Email: sports@freelancestar.com
VCU 75, George Mason 62 |