Jan. 12, 2007
The George Mason men's basketball team enters Saturday's contest looking for its first-three game winning streak of the year. Mason has won both times its played this week, the Patriot's first two-game winning streak since last year's NCAA Tournament. Mason built that winning streak behind exceptional defense, holding UNC Wilmington to 34 points on Monday and Towson to 44 points on Thursday.
Mason entered the week 27th in the nation in scoring defense and that ranking will only go up after holding teams to 39.0 ppg on the week. The Patriots will look to keep the scoring average in the mid-50s on Saturday against James Madison, which is averaging 66.2 ppg. The Dukes have lost three straight after opening the calendar year with a win.
James Madison comfortably leads the all-time series with Mason, 48-30, but the Patriots have won the past four meetings by an average of 22.5 points. The closest contest was a 19-point Mason win two years ago.
While Mason is second in the Colonial Athletic Association in field-goal percentage defense, the Patriots are just eighth in the conference in 3-point field-goal percentage defense. James Madison is third in the conference in long-range shooting, making 37.1 percent of its shots from behind the arc. Joe Posey has been particularly deadly, making 46 percent of his shots from 3-point range and average three per contest. He entered the week 31st in the country in 3-point field-goal percentage.
While Posey provides scoring from the outside, Juwann James provides the offense on the inside. Last year's CAA Rookie of the Year is averaging 13.7 points per game and shooting .564 from the field. He's behind Mason's Will Thomas in both categories, however, as Thomas is scoring 14.2 points per game while shooting 62 percent from the field. Thomas entered the week 21st in the nation in field-goal percentage while James was 48th in that category.
Saturday's contest from the Patriot Center will be televised on MASN (Mid-Atlantic Sports Network). Tip-of is scheduled for 2 p.m.
