Feb. 20, 2010

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Fairfax, Va. - The George Mason men's basketball team rallied from an 11-point deficit to pull to within one in the final minute against College of Charleston on Saturday night but the Patriots couldn't get over the hump as Mason fell to the Cougars 85-83 in the ESPN BracketBusters. The loss gave Mason its first three-game losing streak in three years and the Patriots have now lost back-to-back home games for the first time since that same stretch in the 2006-07 season.

With the ball and down two with nine seconds to go, Ryan Pearson was called for a charge and his basket was waived off leaving Mason to foul the Cougars' Tony White Jr. He made both free throws to seal the win. Mason had pulled to within one on Cam Long's 3-pointer with 59 seconds to play making it a 79-78 contest but the Cougars scored on their next possession to push it back to a three-point game. The Patriots were eventually down four with 12 seconds to go before Luke Hancock scored to make it 83-81, and Andre Cornelius forced a turnover to get Mason back the ball with nine seconds to go, setting up Pearson's controversial play.

College of Charleston used a 13-4 second-half run to take a 71-60 lead forcing Mason to play from behind. Mason (16-12) was up to the task and made it a final-possession game. Johnny Williams scored a career-high 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting while Kevin Foster had his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Ryan Pearson had 13 points, Sherrod Wright added 12 while Luke Hancock and Cam Long each had 10 points and six rebounds. White had 25 for College of Charleston (19-9) while Jeremy Simmons had 18 points, 13 rebounds and was 7 of 8 from the field.

Mason opened the game with an 8-2 lead but College of Charleston countered with a 16-5 run to take an 18-13 lead just six and a half minutes into the game. That's when Mason turned to its freshmen to get back into the game. The Patriots scored 30 more points in the half and 25 of those came from freshmen. Johnny Williams had 14, Sherrod Wright had seven and Luke Hancock had four as Mason closed out the half with a 43-40 lead thanks to 56.3 percent shooting and nine offensive rebounds.

Mason will return to action on Wednesday playing at Delaware at 7 p.m. That game will be broadcast on WTNT 570 AM.