Jan. 26, 2009

The George Mason men's basketball team will take on Delaware on Tuesday night as the Patriots will look to snap their first two-game losing streak since February of 2007. Mason is unbeaten at home this year with a 9-0 record and the Patriots are 14-5 overall and 7-2 in the CAA. Delaware is 9-12 overall and 3-6 in the CAA. The game will be played tonight despite the weather and night classes being canceled. The game will be televised on The Comcast Network, Comcast SportsSouth and Cox Channel 74 and broadcast on ESPN 980.

Mason had a rough week last week. They lost at Northeastern, 58-57, dropping from sole possession of first place into a tie for first with the Huskies and VCU. John Vaughan suffered a concussion in the game leaving him unavailable for Saturday's contest at VCU. The Patriots trailed by 15 in that game before pulling to with one point with a little more than four minutes to play. In the end, Mason was unable to disappoint the crowd of more than 7,500 as VCU pulled out a 76-71 win.

Delaware has three of the top 10 scorers in the CAA and two of the top four. Jawan Carter is third in the CAA with 16.6 points per game while Alphonso Dawson is fourth with 15.7. Marc Egerson is tenth with 13.9 points and he leads the CAA with 10.4 rebounds per game. None of the trio are shooting 42 percent from the field. Jim Ledsome is shooting 65.8 percent but he has taken just 79 shots and is averaging just 5.7 points. He's adding 6.2 rebounds and he has 40 blocks which is top five in the conference. Brian Johnson is fourth in the CAA in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio.

Delaware is fourth in the conference in scoring but the defense hasn't been as strong. The Blue Hens are ninth in field-goal percentage defense, 10th in scoring defense and 11th in rebounding margin.

The Patriots are expected to be without Vaughan on Tuesday. He is Mason's second-leading scorer and best perimeter defender. Cam Long picked up the slack at VCU. The sophomore scored a career-high 24 points, the most by a Mason player this year. He leads the team in scoring and assists and he is fourth in the CAA in field-goal percentage. Darryl Monroe is second in the CAA in rebounding with 8.6 per game and he's adding more than 10 points per contest. With enough attempts he would qualify as the top shooter in the CAA.

Mason leads the all-time series with Delaware, 14-6. Mason has not lost at home to Delaware since Dec. 22, 2001, before the Blue Hens joined the CAA.