FAIRFAX, Va. - Overcoming
a one-point halftime deficit, the George Mason men's basketball team shot
better than 50 percent from the field and pulled away late from Hofstra, securing a 72-62 Colonial Athletic Association victory
on Wednesday evening at the Patriot Center.
Mason (20-6) notched its 20th
win of the year, marking its 11th 20-win season in program history,
staying atop the conference standings at 12-2. Hofstra dropped to 2-12 in
conference and 8-18 overall in the loss.
Senior Ryan
Pearson led a trio of double-digit scorers with 16 points, while sophomore
Sherrod Wright added 12 points along with a career-high tying seven rebounds.
Senior Mike Morrison chipped in 10 points, while Mike Moore led the Pride with
a game-high 18 points.
Mason
out-shot the Pride by a 52.9-to-36.5 percent margin from the field, while also
winning the battle of the boards by a 32-to-29 margin.
The
Patriots led for much of the first 10 minutes, up by as many as five in the
period at 28-23 before, following a Jonathan Arledge jumper at the 5:51 mark,
Mason was held without a field goal for the remainder of the first half. In
that span, the Pride mounted a 6-1 run, eventually taking a 32-31 lead with 42
seconds left after a Stephen Nwaukoni free throw.
It would
stand as the halftime margin, with senior Andre Cornelius leading the Mason
effort with eight first-half points. Moore had 10 points in the first 20
minutes to pace the Pride.
In a game
with 12 tie scores and 11 lead changes, the final one came at the 5:17 mark on
a 3-pointer by Wright, making the score 57-56 in favor of the Patriots. Mason
led by as many as six earlier on, but the Pride took their final lead at 56-54
on a Nathaniel Lester 3-point play.
Hofstra got
it back to two points at 60-58 with 3:43 left with two Nwaukoni free throws,
but the Patriots closed out the game with a 12-4 run to register their first
double-digit victory since the 89-79 win over James Madison on January 28.
The
Patriots return to the road next, traveling to UNCW for a 7 p.m. tilt with the
Seahawks on Saturday night on MASN.
