Dec. 21, 2008
The George Mason men's basketball team will take to the court at Patriot Center on Monday evening as Mason plays host to Tulane in a contest set to tip at 7 p.m. The game will also be broadcast on WTNT 570.
The Patriots (7-2) played on Friday night and beat Radford, 67-55. Cam Long led four Mason players in double figures as he scored a career-high 21 points. He also led the team in rebounding, with six, and assists, with five. John Vaughan scored his 1,000th point in Friday night's contest.
Tulane (5-4) is coming off a home win as well as the Green Wave beat North Carolina A&T, 81-55 on Thursday night. Daniel Puckett has a double-double in that contest while Robinson Louisme led Tulane with 16 points.
Tulane has been led this season by Kevin Sims, who is averaging 13.4 points per game. Louisme leads Tulane in rebounding, with 6.8 per game. He's also second on the squad in scoring, with 11.7 per contest. Tulane has five players averaging 6.6 points per game or better.
The Green Wave's 5-4 mark isn't the only thing balanced on their resume. They are scoring less than one point more than the opposition and they have just one fewer rebounds than the opposition. Tulane has done a good job of taking care of the ball while forcing turnovers, which has helped them overcome being outshot by their opponents. Tulane is shooting 41 percent from the field while their opponents are shooting 44.5 percent.
Like Tulane, the Patriots have just two players in double figures but seven players scoring 6.6 points or more. Long, with one more point than Vaughan, leads the team. He's averaging 11.6 with 4.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists. Vaughan is averaging 11.4 points with 3.6 rebounds and a team-high 16 3-pointers. Darryl Monroe, who was limited on Friday due to back spasms, is averaging 9.4 points and 8.9 rebounds. Louis Birdsong, Andre Cornelius, Dre Smith and Ryan Pearson are the others averaging 6.6 or better.
Mason is scoring 7.6 points per game more than the opposition while also grabbing more than three rebounds per game more than the other team. The Patriots are also shooting 44.7 percent from the field while holding the other team to less than 41 percent shooting.
This will be the first-ever meeting between Mason and Tulane.
