Men’s basketball lost to George Mason in a hard-fought battle Wednesday night, 66-53, after the Patriots finished the game on a 21 to 7 run.
The Colonials (6-7 A-10, 12-14) entered the game looking to complete a season sweep against their cross town rival George Mason (7-7 A-10, 15-12), who had only won one game on the road coming in. After the defeat, GW has now fallen from fourth place in the A-10 to 10th place in just three weeks.
Senior guard James Bishop led the way for the Colonials, scoring 23 points on nine of 19 shooting. Bishop was the only GW player who finished with double figures, in what turned into a gritty, defensive rivalry matchup.
Senior center Josh Oduro led George Mason, finishing with 19 points and 12 rebounds, making nine of 14 shots from the field. The Patriots also got help from freshman guard Justyn Fernandez, who finished with 15 points, all coming from beyond the 3-point arc.
The Colonials came out strong, getting out to an early 10–4 lead by the first media timeout. The run was short lived and GW quickly went cold, missing their next 11 shot attempts, allowing for George Mason to go on a 17-4 run of their own over a 12 minute span nearing the end of the first half.
With 3:59 to play, Bishop capped the run and sent it to a media timeout with an and-one layup. Both sides traded baskets before graduate guard Brendan Adams nailed a pull up jumper to cut the Patriot lead to 6.
In the second half, both teams got hot, with the Colonials netting 55.6 percent from the field and the Patriots nearly matching that at 54.8 percent. GW’s offensive success didn’t feature any action from the perimeter with GW missing their four attempts from deep in the second half.
The Colonials would ultimately finish the game with only one made 3-pointer, which came from A-10 Rookie of the Week, Maximus Edwards, early in the first half. This year they’ve averaged 7.4 made 3s per game.
The Colonials eventually took the lead with about seven minutes left in the game following an Adams layup. But the Patriots emphatically regained control of the game as freshman guard Justyn Fernandez knocked down four 3-pointers in a five minute span.
This sudden barrage from deep contributed to the Patriots’ 21–7 run to close out the game, which Head Coach Chris Caputo said was the ultimate deciding factor in the game’s outcome.
“We had to claw our way back,” Caputo said. “I thought we did a bunch of different things to try to find a way to get back in the game.”
Tonight’s loss was the first game all season where the Colonials had been held to under 60 points.
“I think they really tried to play the pick and rolls to two on two, and it took a lot of the shooters away on the weak side,” Bishop said about the Colonials’ overall struggle to score the ball at a high pace. “So there weren’t a lot of help opportunities for us to kick to 3-point shooters. And then like you said, we took a lot of 2-pointers. So when we shoot 2s versus 3s. I think there’s a reason why.”
With five games left in the regular season, the Colonials find themselves sitting at 10th place in the A-10 standings but only two games out of fifth place. The Colonials will be looking to secure a key road win against St. Bonaventure at the Reilly Center Sunday at 2 p.m.