Senior guard Cam Long scored 18 points as the George Mason men’s basketball team remained undefeated at Patriot Center this season with a 66-51 win over Georgia State on Saturday.
The Patriots overcame slow starts in both halves, finally taking command late in the second half behind the play of Long, junior Ryan Pearson (14 points) and sophomore forward Luke Hancock, who had all nine of his points after halftime. The result was George Mason’s eighth straight win at home this season as the Patriots (12-5 overall, 4-2 Colonial Athletic Association) handed the Panthers (8-8, 3-3) their third straight loss.
“We did not have the same kind of energy to start the game as we’ve had,” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “Georgia State I thought really did control the tempo. They held on to the ball, often times the shot clock would be under 10 before they took their shot. That would put us on defense for 25 or 30 seconds, and it continued that way until midway in the second half when we instructed the players to go out and pick up full court.
“That helped because it sped up the game a little bit, and as it got faster our guys got a little looser and shared the ball a little bit better on offense and we got some easier buckets.”
George Mason came out cold to open the game, a slow start Larranaga attributed to a lackluster practice on Friday, and just under nine minutes into the game found themselves with as many points as turnovers committed when Georgia State’s Marcus Johnson hit a jump shot to give the Panthers an 8-5 advantage. The Patriots would come alive, however, behind the play of Isaiah Tate, who scored eight of his 11 points in the first half and sparked a 12-0 run that gave George Mason a 20-11 lead with 3 minutes, 57 seconds remaining in the half.
“I think Isaiah Tate was a big key today,” Larranaga said. He’s been playing well, he helps us at both ends of the floor and he knows that we count on him when he comes off the bench.”
The Panthers would not go away easily, however, drawing to within 24-21 at halftime and trailed just 43-41 after a 3-point play by James Fields with 9:43 remaining in the game.
That is when the Patriots’ trio of Long, Pearson and Hancock went to work, igniting a 9-0 run to push the lead to 52-41, and the Panthers were unable to counter with a run of their own as the game was put away.
“[Their defense] is what slowed us down, they pressured our offense and they took us out of positions that we’d normally be in,” said Long, who hit 8 of his 12 shots in a game-high 35 minutes. “In the second half what happened was we started attacking just like they attacked us.”
George Mason’s defense was once again stellar at home, holding Georgia State to just 34.7 percent shooting from the field and forcing 20 turnovers, many of which led to baskets at the other end. The Patriots are allowing just 53.3 points per game at home this season and have held seven of their eight opponents at Patriot Center to under 40 percent shooting from the field.
The win allowed the George Mason to keep pace with league-leading Hofstra, which carried a 5-0 conference record into their game against Old Dominion on Saturday afternoon. The Patriots are next in action on Thursday night, when they host Drexel.
