WHEN: Saturday, 4 p.m.
WHERE: EagleBank Arena, Fairfax, Va.
RECORDS: Mason (18-8, 8-5), Rhode Island (16-9, 8-5)
SERIES RECORD: Series tied, 3-3
LAST MEETING: URI def. Mason, 81-63, on Feb. 9, 2016 in Kingston, R.I.
TELEVISION: NBC Sports Network (online stream)
LIVE AUDIO: Click here
LIVE STATS: Click here
GAME NOTES: Click here (PDF)
TICKETS: Click here

GAME SPONSOR: Virginia Lottery
GIVEAWAY: Green Game T-Shirt for the first 2,000 fans

FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team (18-8, 8-5) will look for its fifth-straight victory Saturday when the Patriots host Rhode Island (16-9, 8-5) inside EagleBank Arena.

Tip-off between the Patriots and Rams in Mason's annual Green Game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday's contest will be televised nationally on NBC Sports Network, featuring commentary from Mike Corey and Ron Thompson. In addition, Bill Rohland will call the game live on 106.7 WJFK and the A-10 Digital Network, with pre-game coverage beginning at 3:45 p.m.

Mason and URI are tied with Saint Bonaventure for fourth-place in the A-10. The winner of Saturday's game will own a valuable A-10 Tournament seeding tiebreaker heading into the final push of the regular season.

* Mason has set a new program record for A-10 wins (8) with five league games remaining (previous record was 5). The Patriots also have eclipsed their win total from the 2015-16 season (11) by a significant margin. Mason is one of the nation's top-7 most improved teams in comparison to last season's results, according to the NCAA improvement metric.

* The Patriots are 17-5 in their last 22 contests.

* Last time out, Mason earned a 93-70 win over Richmond.

* Senior Marquise Moore led Mason with his third-straight double-double (16th overall) with 22 points and 12 rebounds.

* Five Mason players scored 10+ points vs. Richmond. The Patriots are 11-1 when 4+ players score in double figures.

* On Tuesday, Jalen Jenkins became the 35th Mason player to score 1000 points and finished with 17 points vs. the Spiders.

* The 6-foot-2-inch Moore is the top rebounding guard in the nation (10.5 rpg), is third in the country among all players in defensive rebounds/game (8.8), 13th in overall rebounding and is one of only 10 players nationally (and the only guard) with 16+ double-doubles.

* Mason leads the A-10 in 3-point percentage in league games (.398, 82-206). The Pats shot 28.5 percent in league play in 2015-16.

* Jaire Grayer is a big contributor to those improved shooting numbers. In conf. games, he is third in the A-10 in 3-point percentage (.463, 31-67) and sixth in 3pt FG made/game (2.4). He has scored 10+ points in 11 of 13 A-10 games this season.

* Over the past five games, Otis Livingston II is averaging 20.0 points and shooting 56.4 percent (.563 3pt FG%).

* Mason gave up just five offensive boards to Richmond and is allowing only 5.7 off. reb./game over the past three contests. Mason is 28th nationally in opponent offensive rebound percentage (25.0).

HISTORY vs. RHODE ISLAND
Saturday's game marks the seventh all-time meeting between George Mason and Rhode Island in men's basketball. The Patriots are 2-1 in games played in Fairfax, while URI is 3-0 against the Patriots in A-10 games. The teams first met on Nov. 11, 2011, with the Patriots taking the non-conference game, 92-90, in Fairfax. Last season, URI won, 81-63, in Kingston on Feb. 9.

A LOOK AT THE RAMS (16-9, 8-5 A-10)
URI was picked second out of 14 teams in the 2016-17 Atlantic-10 preseason poll. The Rams posted an 8-4 non-conference record, highlighted by a 76-71 win over then No. 24 Cincinnati on November 19. Rhode Island started A-10 play 8-3 but has dropped its last two contests to Dayton (75-74) and Fordham (53-43) inside the Ryan Center. Preseason All-A-10 second team selection E.C. Matthews leads the team in scoring (14.6 ppg) and grabs 4.4 rebounds per contest, while fellow second teamer Hassan Martin tallies 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per contest. Kuran Iverson pulls down a team best 7.4 boards per game and chips in 9.5 points/game. Point guard Jarvis Garrett recently returned to the lineup after missing a significant portion of the season due to illness. He averages 7.8 points and 3.8 assists.

HOME IMPROVEMENT
The Patriots struggled to shoot during the first four home games of A-10 play en route to a 1-3 start. Since then, Mason has excelled on the offensive end while putting together a three-game home winning streak.

FIRST FOUR HOME LEAGUE GAMES
Record    FG%    3pt%    FT%    PPG
1-3            .412    .362    .630    68.5

LAST THREE HOME LEAGUE GAMES
Record    FG%    3pt%    FT%    PPG
3-0            .542    .449    .845    87.0

UP NEXT
Mason hits the road for a matchup with A-10 powerhouse Dayton on Tuesday (Feb. 21). Tip-off between the Patriots and Flyers is scheduled for 7 p.m. The game will be streamed nationally on Facebook Live.