Nov. 15, 2009

Box Score

Fairfax, Va. - The George Mason men's basketball team won its 18th straight home game and started the 2009-2010 season 2-0 after the Patriots used a big second-half run to put away the Dartmouth Big Green, 60-44 at Patriot Center. Ahead 32-30, with 13:43 to go, Mason used a 23-6 run to break the contest open.

Ryan Pearson had a career-high 19 points and his 10 rebounds gave him his second double-double. Mike Morrison had his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. After scoring 11 in his collegiate debut, Luke Hancock scored 12 on Sunday. The Patriots outrebounded Dartmouth, 46-31 giving them 10 more shots. With turnovers and shooting percentage close to even, that turned out to be a big advantage.

Mason was finally able to get some separation midway through the second half. First Mike Morrison made a free throw to put the Patriots ahead, 33-30. Then Luke Hancock stole the ball at halfcourt, converted a reverse layup and drained a free throw to put Mason up by six. A Ryan Pearson 3-pointer followed off a Dartmouth miss and then another steal led to a Morrison basket in the lane to give the Patriots their first double-digit lead of the game.

After a quick 6-2 Dartmouth run made it a seven-point game, Morrison answered with a putback and his dunk off a Cam Long steal made it 47-36. Long followed with a fallaway and Hancock added another reverse layup to make it 51-36 with 6:03 to play. Hancock again went to the reverse layup on the next possession, this time after posting up, and the Patriots simply needed to take care of the ball down the stretch to ice the win.

The Patriots will have Monday off before getting on a plane on Tuesday to head to Puerto Rico where they will take part in the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan. All three of Mason's games will be televised by the ESPN networks. Mason's first-round contest is with Villanova on Thursday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU. Games will follow on Friday, against either Georgia Tech or Dayton, and on Sunday against a to-be-determined opponent. Mason's next local contest will be on Wednesday, December 2, when Mason travels to George Washington. Tickets for that game go onsale on Wednesday at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster.