Dec. 29, 2009

The George Mason men's basketball team has played just once since Dec. 12 but the Patriots will begin a stretch of five games in 11 days on Wednesday when they travel to Radford to take on the Highlanders at 7 pm. in a game televised on MASN and broadcast on WTNT 570 AM.

The Highlanders are 5-5 on the season but three of those losses have come against some of the nation's elite. Radford lost at Kansas, 99-64, at Duke, 94-70, and at Louisville, 79-53. It also lost at Duquesne and at home to William & Mary. The Highlanders are 3-1 at home with wins over Navy, Lynchburg and Roanoke.

Art Parakhouski leads Radford with 21.8 points, 13.4 rebounds and 59.2 percent shooting. Joey Lynch-Flohr is averaging 14.2 points and 7.4 rebounds while Lazar Trifunovic is averaging 12.8 points and 8.3 rebounds. In total, Radford is grabbing an impressive 43.1 rebounds per game. They have not shot the ball well from behind the arc, however, making just 28.4 percent of their shots from 3-point range while allowing 34.7 percent.

After starting the season well offensively, Mason (6-5) went through a stretch where it struggled, before slowly rediscovering its scoring touch. The Patriots score 75 in a three-point win over Creighton on Dec. 12 and 89 in a three-point win over VMI on Dec. 22. Overall, eight of Mason's 11 games have been decided by five points or fewer.

Three Patriots are scoring in double figures with Cam Long averaging 12.4 points with 30 assists and 17 steals (both team highs), Ryan Pearson scoring 11.1 points and 6.8 rebounds and Luke Hancock averaging 10.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 29 assists and a 54.2 shooting percentage. Andre Cornelius is adding 8.1 points while shooting 46.9 percent from 3-point range and Mike Morrison is averaging 7.7 points and 5.9 rebounds while shooting 53.7 percent from the field.

Mason has won the past three meetings and has not lost to Radford since Dec. 6, 1993.