Feb. 7, 2007
The George Mason men's basketball team will look to upend the Colonial Athletic Association's top team as the Patriots take on Virginia Commonwealth on Thursday. The Patriots are jut 14-23 all-time against the Rams and have won at the Siegel Center just twice in its seven years of existence. The first win came in the building's first year, the 1999-2000 season. The second win came last year when Mason trailed by 17 with a little more than 15 minutes to play and outscored the Rams 39-9 en route to a 73-61 win.
The Patriots had no such rally in their system when the teams met earlier this year. The Patriots led by one just before the half but went into the break down by a point and Mason was never able to retake the lead. The Rams led throughout the second half and enjoyed a 12 of 20 shooting night from 3-point range. The Patriots had a better shooting percentage in the game but were just 9 of 21 from the free-throw line and gave up 11 offensive rebounds.
Mason has gotten strong performances of late from Folarin Campbell. The junior guard has scored 17 or more in the past five games and six of the past seven. He has reached double figures in 20 of 23 contests and he is among the top 10 in the CAA in scoring and assists and he's 12th in steals. Virginia Commonwealth might be his favorite opponent. In his last four games against the Rams, he's averaging 18.0 ppg while shooting 67.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range.
Will Thomas is fourth in the nation in field goal percentage and he is shooting 66.7 percent against the Rams in his career, averaging 10.4 points. Thomas is among the CAA leaders in scoring and rebounding as well.
The Rams are paced by a trio of superb guards - B.A. Walker, Jesse Pellot-Rosa and Eric Maynor. All three are among the top 15 in the conference in scoring with Walker averaging 15.8 ppg, Maynor at 14.0 ppg and Pellot-Rosa at 13.5 ppg. In addition, Maynor leads the conference with 6.38 assists per contest, good for seventh in the nation.
Mason leads the CAA in scoring defense and field-goal percentage offense and the Patriots are third in field-goal percentage defense. The Rams lead the conference in scoring offense, 3-point field goal percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio. The Rams are seventh in the nation in turnovers per game.
Thursday's contest will be broadcast on ESPNU.
