FAIRFAX, Va. – The George Mason University men's basketball team put together an outstanding defensive half and made the critical plays down the stretch to earn an important 67-65 win over Davidson Saturday afternoon inside EagleBank Arena.
Mason trailed for 33:43 of the game's 40 minutes, but remained poised and continued to chip away at an early 12-point deficit. The Green & Gold pushed ahead to lead 62-59 with 2:36 to play, then responded nicely after Davidson rallied to take a 65-64 lead with 25 seconds to play.
The Patriots earned a stop on Davidson's final possession and senior
Josh Oduro made three of four free throws in the closing seconds to ice the win for the Green & Gold.
Mason improved to a perfect 10-0 at home with the win over the Wildcats.
"I'm really proud of our guys' resolve for bouncing back after a really tough loss to Saint Louis against one of the teams in our league that's won multiple conference championships in the last 10 years," head coach
Kim English said. "We're going to keep taking steps to be the program we want to become in this league. We have to find a way to win games against those programs to do that. I'm proud of our group – everyone to a man did something to contribute to this win."
Oduro continued his stellar play of late Saturday, finishing with a game-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting. He just missed his eighth double-double of the year, but finished with a game-high nine rebounds and a team-best five assists in 32 minutes. He's averaging 21.7 points, 11.7 rebounds and shooting 62.5 percent over the past three contests.
Junior
Malik Henry also thrived in Mason's two-big lineup while notching 12 points (5-7 FG), six rebounds and two steals in 17 minutes. It marked his second 10+ point effort in the past three games.
Graduate guard
DeVon Cooper added 10 points (2-5 3pt FG), while freshman guard
Justyn Fernandez matched his career high with nine points, grabbed five rebounds and set a personal best with three assists in 21 minutes.
Oduro grabbed six offensive rebounds to help Mason hold a 16-6 edge in second chance points on the day. The Patriots also enjoyed advantages in bench scoring (18-4), points off turnovers (22-17) and points in the paint (34-28).
Davidson jumped out to an early 14-2 advantage and led by nine (19-10) at the 10:06 mark of the opening stanza. Mason used a 6-0 run to move within three (19-16) and were within one at 30-29. The Wildcats took a 36-31 edge into the break.
Davidson extended the lead to eight at 41-33, but another 6-0 spurt pulled the Patriots back within one (41-40) at the 16:23 mark.
The Patriots took their first lead at 49-48, but Davidson scored the next six to go back up five (54-49). Mason used a 9-0 run to take its largest lead at six (62-56) with 2:49 to go, then held on after Davidson made its final push.
George Mason remains in Fairfax for a second nationally-televised contest in as many games. The Patriots will host George Washington for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day contest Monday afternoon. The 4 p.m. game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.
