When Javon Greene woke up Sunday morning, the Mason junior felt the results of his 39-point, 4-assist, 4-rebound, 5-steal performance in Saturday's game against Richmond.

"My whole lower body was sore," Greene said with a laugh at practice Tuesday prior to Wednesday's home game against UMass.

Though Greene's 39 points were a career high as well as a Mason men's record for the 35-year-old building now named EagleBank Arena, the 6-2 guard is no stranger to high scoring games. He had games of 58 and 46 points as a senior at Henry County HS in McDonough, Ga.

"But I didn't have all those steals, assists and stuff like that," Greene said of his prep games. "I left it all on the court [Saturday]. I tried. I didn't have nothing else to give."

There was urgency in his effort. The Patriots (12-6, 1-4 A10) were missing starting guards Justin Kier (foot surgery) and Jamal Hartwell II (illness) on top of losing senior guard Ian Boyd (redshirting after wrist surgery).

Greene benefited Saturday from a lesson learned in the previous game, a 73-67 loss at GW, where he shot 3-for-13 and scored 11 points. As coach Dave Paulsen told him in a post-game meeting, Greene had tried to do too much scoring to compensate for the missing regulars.
 

"He's improved in that more often than not, he's letting the game come to him," Paulsen said. "When he slows down and – as I like to say – concentrates on hitting singles more than home runs, he's a really good player."

Against Richmond, Greene shot 15-for-22, including 5-for-10 from beyond the arc, and drove for some tough acrobatic layups in traffic. In 38-plus minutes, he had just one turnover.

"In the beginning of the year, I wasn't making my stuff around the rim," said Greene. "I'd have like 14 points on 14 shots because I was missing easy layups. Starting conference play, I focused on finishing around the rim, making the easy ones."

The vast majority of Greene's layups are in traffic against taller players. He credits work with strength and conditioning coach Handy Handerahan with increased inside effectiveness.

Besides his balanced scoring outside and inside, Greene makes valuable defensive contributions, leading the team in steals, deflections and drawn charges, in addition to guarding the opposition's best perimeter player.

"I take pride in all those things," Greene said.

Nobody, especially Paulsen, is expecting 39 points a night from a player who leads the team in scoring at 13.9 ppg and averages 5.8 rpg. "No one guy has to step up," Paulsen said. "It's a collective effort."

The coach is likely to continue discussions with Greene about playing within himself, not forcing things.

"He's becoming more consistent, though he's not all the way there yet," Paulsen said. "When he puts it all together, he's a versatile guard who can do a lot of things. Now he's not going to put it together every night.

"But what he's got to do is not let two missed shots or getting beat on defense make him speed up and try to get it all back at once. Just stay the course the other 38 minutes."