Feb. 16, 2010
Box Score
The George Mason men's basketball team suffered its first home conference loss of the season on Tuesday night as the Patriots were unable to pull out of their February slump as Mason fell to William & Mary, 63-60 at Patriot Center. It snapped Mason's school-record 18-game home winning streak against Colonial Athletic Association opposition. Mason is just 1-4 in February.
William & Mary committed just one second-half turnover after turning the ball over six times in the first half, leading to 14 Mason points. There were no points off turnovers in the second half as the Tribe took care of the ball and got the job done on the boards, outrebounding Mason 38-27, including a 15-7 edge on the offensive glass.
Kevin Foster had a career-high 22 points for Mason going 11 of 16 from the field while tying his career high with nine rebounds and two blocks. Andre Cornelius had nine points but all came in the first half. Quinn McDowell had 19 points while David Schneider had 15 and Danny Sumner had 13. Mason shot 48 percent from the field while the Tribe shot just 42.6 percent but they were 7 of 18 from 3-point range while Mason was just 4 of 14.
Down 48-39 with 11:37 to play, William & Mary used an 11-2 run to tie the score. Mason used back-to-back lobs to Foster to retake the lead, but the Tribe answered with a Sean McCurdy layup and a deep McDowell 3-pointer to take a 55-54 lead with 3:12 to play, their first lead since the first 12 minutes. Sumner added a jumper to push it to three but Hancock was able to tie the score at 59-59 on a drive and free throw.
William & Mary owned the final minute as Schneider made a layup and after Long went 1 of 2 from the line with 29 seconds to play, Schneider missed the front end of a one-and-one to give Mason a chance to win. Long's drive was blocked, though, by Sumner and Schneider made two more free throws to finish the scoring.
William & Mary opened the game by building a 7-2 lead over the first six minutes but the Patriots responded with an 11-2 run to take a 13-9 lead midway through the half. The Tribe stayed within a basket until Mason used a 14-6 run over the final 5:05 to take a 36-25 lead into the break.
Mason will return to action on Saturday when they host College of Charleston on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. as part of Homecoming Weekend.
