(Art Pittman / George Mason Athletics)
Patriots overcome half-time deficit, poor free-throw shooting to bounce back
BY SAM DOUGLAS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, AND PETER MAHLER, ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
Four days after dropping their first conference game of the season, Mason men’s basketball bounced back with a 60-52 win over the Davidson Wildcats.
Mason withstood a shaky first half by playing their brand of gritty, defensive-oriented basketball behind a raucous crowd at EagleBank Arena.
The Patriots held the lead for most of the first half, but a 15-1 run would have Mason down 6 going into the locker room. Offense was limited for both sides, and Mason’s atypical 6-for-13 performance from the free-throw line didn’t help.
Like many times this season, Mason rode a staunch second-half defense to victory. They allowed only 18 points after the break, including a seven-minute scoring drought from Davidson with less than ten minutes left to play in the half.
“Thank God for two halves of basketball,” Coach Tony Skinn said, referring to the team’s halftime adjustments. “Let’s learn from what just happened. We got another 20 minutes. Let’s fix it.”
Junior Kory Mincy continued his stellar season, posting a game-high 19 points and 5 assists. The standout guard ranks second in the A-10 in scoring, averaging 16.4 points per game. Mincy has been lethal from beyond the three-point line, ranking in the top 10 for three-pointers made per game and three-point percentage.
“Me being in there, being able to help my guys out while they’re fighting hard down there, it allows me to be able to push the pace and see the floor,” Mincy said.
Coming into the game without junior center Riley Allenspach, their second-leading scorer and leader in rebounds, Mason had a major hole to fill in their five position.
Even without Allenspach, Coach Skinn praised his big men for stepping in when needed.
“Our five position is not our problem, because we’ve got Nick Ellington and [freshman forward] Emmanuel Kanga, and I thought that they stepped up tremendously tonight in different ways,” he said.
Stepping in as Allenspach’s replacement, graduate forward Nick Ellington made the most of his start, contributing a team-leading seven rebounds. He was also a defensive asset, recording two steals and a block.
Ellington’s eight points on 3-for-3 shooting helped catapult him to 1,000 career points.
“I’ve got a little girl, I can tell her like, ‘Man, I got a thousand Division I points on a historic Mason team,’” Ellington said, “Like that’s something I’m going to talk about for the rest of my life. Hopefully she can tell her friends that — she may even tell her kids that.”
Scoring for Davidson certainly dried up in the second half, as they shot just 28% from the field. Ellington was a major factor, racking up three of his defensive rebounds after the break.
“As bad as we’ve been in the first half, for the most part, we’ve been able to just kind of cut people’s water off in the second half,” Skinn said.
At 19-2, the Patriots haven’t always won pretty, but Skinn isn’t too focused on how they win.
“It’s my opinion, but if it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it, right?” he said.
The Patriots move to 7-1 in the A-10, and their 19-2 record is the best start in team history. Their run has included rivalry wins at EagleBank over VCU and GW, and they will travel to face St. Bonaventure in another conference matchup on Saturday, Jan. 31. Fans can watch the 6:30 p.m. tipoff on USA Network.