WHEN: Saturday, 7 p.m.
WHERE: EagleBank Arena - Fairfax, Va.
RECORDS: George Mason (4-4), Old Dominion (3-5)
SERIES: ODU leads, 36-22
TELEVISION: MASN
LIVE VIDEO: Click here
LIVE AUDIO: Click here
LIVE STATS: Click here
GAME NOTES: Click here (PDF)
TICKETS: Click here

FAIRFAX, Va. - The George Mason University men's basketball team (4-4) returns to EagleBank Arena for the first time since November 14 to take on Old Dominion Saturday.

Tip-off between the Patriots and Monarchs is set for 7 p.m. Saturday's game will be televised on MASN and broadcast on ESPN+, featuring commentary from Bill Rohland and Craig Esherick. In addition, Steve Kolbe will call the game on the GoMason Digital Network, with pre-game coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m.

PATRIOT POINTS
• Mason is 3-0 at home this season with an average margin of victory of 26.7 points. The Patriots also are shooting 53.4 percent and limiting teams to 35.8 percent in their three home contests.

• The Patriots will look to stop a 4-game skid on Saturday. In Mason's most recent game, the Patriots were edged by South Dakota State, 80-76, on Nov. 24 at the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls.

• Junior Josh Oduro tallied 20 points (8-11 FG) against the Jackrabbits. He garnered Crossover Classic All-Tournament Team accolades after averaging 18.7 points, 7.0 rebounds and shooting 63.3 percent from the floor at the event.

• Oduro ranks second in the A-10 and 41st nationally in FG% (.614). He is 10th in the league in scoring (16.9 ppg).

• Graduate student D'Shawn Schwartz poured in a career-high 29 points vs. SDSU and made a personal-best 12 field goals on 20 attempts (.600). It marked Schwartz's second game with at least 26 points this season.

• Graduate student DeVon Cooper dished out a career-best six assists vs. SDSU to go along with 15 points. He averaged 16.3 points, 3.3 assists and 3.7 3pt FG made/gm at the event. Cooper is now just 28 points away from 1,000 for his career.

• Junior Davonte "Ticket" Gaines has scored at least 13 points in five of the past six games. He's shooting a team-high 63.2 percent (12-19) from 3-point range and 55.1 percent (.551) overall this season.

• Mason ranks 43rd nationally in 2pt FG% (.553), 55th in effective FG% (.555) and 69th in 3pt FG% (.372) this season. The Patriots shot 40.9 percent from 3pt range through the first six games but have made only 27.1 percent of their attempts over the past two contests.

• The Patriots have outrebounded their opponent in seven of eight games this season and currently rank second in the A-10 and 39th nationally in rebounding margin (+8.4).

• Mason opponents found success scoring on the interior in South Dakota. Patriot foes shot 62.0 percent (57-92) from inside the arc at the Crossover Classic.

• After battling the turnover bug for the first part of the season, the Patriots committed just eight against the Jackrabbits.

HOTTEST TICKET IN TOWN
Junior Davonte "Ticket" Gaines has put together a breakout season in 2020-21. After playing 317 total minutes and scoring 86 points (1.8/game) in his first two seasons (48 games) at Tennessee, Gaines already has tallied 94 points (11.8/game) and 234 minutes through just eight games in Fairfax. He makes an impact all over the floor defensively, ranks second in the A-10 in rebounds/game (8.4) and has notched three double-doubles. The Buffalo, N.Y., product shoots a team-best 63.2 percent (12-19) from 3pt range and is at 55.1 percent overall (27-49) for the season.

HISTORY vs. OLD DOMINION
George Mason and Old Dominion, two old conference rivals, will meet for the 59th time and just the fourth occasion since Mason left the CAA at the end of 2013. Mason is 14-11 against ODU in Fairfax, 5-24 in Norfolk and 3-1 on neutral floors against the Monarchs, including a victory in the CAA Championship Game (63-58) on Feb. 28, 1999. The Patriots lost 22 of the first 23 meetings between the schools from 1978-98, but Mason holds a 21-14 edge since. In the most recent matchup between the programs, Mason won 60-53 on Grand Cayman en route to the 2019 Cayman Islands Classic title.

HISTORY vs. CONFERENCE USA PROGRAMS
Mason is 29-40 (.420) all time against teams currently in Conference USA. The bulk of those meetings have come against the Monarchs (22-36). In addition, Mason's most common other C-USA opponents are Charlotte (3-0) and FIU (2-1).

A LOOK AT THE MONARCHS (3-5, 0-0 CONFERENCE USA; KenPom 195)
Old Dominion was picked to finish fifth in the 2021-22 Conference USA preseason poll. The Monarchs are 3-5 to begin the campaign. That includes two recent one-point games - a 62-61 win over Longwood on Nov. 26 and a 63-62 setback at East Carolina on Tuesday. The Monarchs are a top-150 KenPom defensive team, but rank 323rd out of 358 teams in effective field goal percentage (.433) and 237th in offensive efficiency (0.98 points/possession). Senior C.J. Keyser leads the team in scoring (12.9 ppg) while junor Kalu Ezikpe adds 11.4 points and a team-high 6.9 rebounds per contest. Sophomore Jaylin Hunter dishes out a team-best 4.4 assists per contest and chips in 9.0 points per game.

UP NEXT
Mason remains at home for a Tuesday night contest vs. Patriot League foe Navy. Tip-off between the Patriots and Midshipmen is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.