The George Mason men's basketball team struggled to find an offensive rhythm early and the Patriots were unable to rally from a 16-point first-half deficit against Bucknell as Mason could only pull to within three in the final minute before falling to the Bison in the BB&T Classic at the Verizon Center on Sunday, 60-57.
Mason trailed 33-17 late in the first half and went into the break down 33-20. The Patriots opened the second half with a 7-2 run to pull to within eight and later made it a six-point game, 41-35. Bucknell responded to every rally, and the Bison had a 50-40 lead with less than four minutes to play. Mason used a 12-5 run to make it a 55-52 game but the Bison made their free throws down the stretch. Folarin Campbell sank a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to make the final score close.
The Patriots could not find a hot hand in the contest as only Dre Smith shot better than 50 percent from the field. The sophomore was 4 of 5 from the field and 3 of 4 from 3-point range, but all 11 of his points came in the second half. Folarin Campbell led all scorers with 20 points but he was just 7 of 17 from the field.
Will Thomas entered the contest shooting 67.5 percent from the field but was just 4 of 12 for eight points and five rebounds. He did lead the Patriots with four assists. John Vaughan, who entered the game shooting 55.6 from the field and averaging 15.2 points per game, was just 3 of 11 shooting for six points.
The Patriots took 19 more shots than Bucknell but the Bison shot 50 percent from 3-point range and 14 of 20 from the free throw line. Mason took just four shots from the charity stripe and Campbell converted all of them. The Patriots were also outrebounded, 29-24. Mason did do a better job controlling the ball, as Bucknell (3-5) committed 18 turnovers to 10 by Mason, but the Patriots shot less than 42 percent from the field while the Bison made nearly 53 percent of their shots.
Donald Brown paced the Bison with 16 points and nine rebounds. He was 6 of 6 from the field and 4 of 5 from the free throw line. The rest of the Bucknell players were 13 of 30 shooting (43.3 percent).
Mason was looking for its first two-game winning streak of the season. The Patriots have traded wins with losses in their six games and now stand at 3-3 with a pair of road games this coming week. Mason will play at Radford on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and at Duke on Saturday at Noon.
