Jan. 17, 2006
The George Mason men's basketball team will host Northeastern University on Thursday night and fans will be treated to a pair of NBA prospects as Huskies senior guard Jose Juan Barea and sophomore center Shawn James will play for the first time in the Patriot Center.
Barea passed up the NBA draft to return for his senior season and he currently leads the nation in assists with 8.7 per game and he is 13th in scoring, with 22.8 points per game. Last year he became the first player since 1998 to finish the season among the top 10 in the nation in scoring and assists.
James is second in the nation in blocks per game with 5.8 per contest. He is Northeastern's all-time leader in that category halfway through his second season, having already topped 200 for his career. James is also averaging 10.7 points, 6.6 rebounds and he is fifth in the conference with a .536 field-goal percentage.
Ahead of James in the field-goal percentage category are Mason's Will Thomas (3rd - .575) and Jai Lewis (4th - .567). The Patriots lead the CAA in field goal percentage (.485) and field goal percentage defense (.374). They are first in scoring margin (+12.5) and second in scoring defense (57.9). In the first meeting with Northeastern, Mason held the Huskies to 10 points below their season average in a 71-68 Mason win in Boston.
In that first meeting, Barea had 22 points but was just 6 of 21 from the field and 2 of 10 from 3-point range. He also had seven rebounds and six assists. James had 11 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks. Mason was led by Lewis' 19 points while Tony Skinn had 17, Folarin Campbell had 13 points and eight rebounds and Will Thomas had 12 points and two blocks.
The win against Northeastern on Jan. 2 started Mason's current five-game winning streak, the team's longest since the 2003-04 season. All five of those wins have been in conference as Mason has gone out to a 6-1 start in CAA play, good for a first-place tie with Old Dominion, which handed Mason its lone conference loss of the year.
During the five-game winning streak, all five of Mason's starters are averaging in double figures and three of them, Thomas, Lewis and Campbell, are shooting .500 or better from the field. Mason has held the opposition to 54.6 points per game during that stretch and over the past three games, Mason has set a school record for fewest points allowed over a three-game span, 145. That breaks the old mark of 146 set on two previous occasions.
Thursday's game begins at 7 p.m.
