ST. LOUIS – The George Mason University men's basketball team (20-5, 11-1) continued to assert its prowess in close games with a historic 76-74 overtime victory at Saint Louis (14-11, 7-5) on Tuesday night inside Chaifetz Arena.
 
The win is the Patriots' fifth-straight in games decided by five points or less and its third-consecutive overtime triumph.
 
The Green & Gold have won 10-straight games overall – good for the second-longest streak in the nation – and have started conference play 11-1 for the first time in the 59-year history of the program.
 
George Mason is now 1.5 games ahead of VCU for first place in the A-10 heading into Saturday's nationally-televised home game vs. Saint Joseph's.
 
"That was an unbelievable win," head coach Tony Skinn ('06) said. "Time and time again, our team has shown such resilience. It speaks to the growth of some of our older guys who were with us last year and were on the other end of some of these close games. These guys are connected and I think we're seeing something special. I'm just proud of them because this is a tough place to win."
 
George Mason made 15 3-pointers in a game for the first time since Feb. 2022 and shot 45.5 percent from deep to fuel the Patriot offense.
 
Senior Woody Newton led the charge with the best offensive game of his career. He poured in a career-best 27 points and made a personal-best eight 3-pointers on just 12 attempts. Newton added two assists and two steals in 26 minutes of work.
 
Senior Darius Maddox added 14 points (3-6 3pt), six rebounds and two assists, while senior K.D. Johnson chipped in 11 points (2-3 3pt).
 
Jared Billups added 10 points, including two huge 2-for-2 conversions late at the line on the one-and-one, while Jalen Haynes notched 10 points, eight rebounds and three assists.
 
The Patriots led 66-59 with 2:12 to go, but two second-chance 3-pointers helped pull SLU within one (68-67) with 13 seconds to go in regulation. Billups made two free throws on the other end, but Isaiah Swope hit a long 3-pointer for SLU with 1.6 seconds left to send the game to overtime.
 
In the extra session, GM held the Billikens to just 1-of-6 shooting (.167) and got a 3-pointer from Maddox and two big free throws from Billups to push the visitors to the win. Over the Patriots' last two overtime sessions, GM has held its opponent to a combined 1-of-14 (.071) from the floor.
 
The Patriots dished out an A-10 season-best 17 assists and committed a league season-low five turnovers. GM forced 14 Billiken miscues and is now 10-0 when winning the turnover battle this season.
 
What's more, GM also held a sizable 23-0 edge in bench scoring for the game.
 
The Patriots limited to just two baskets over the first 9:30 to build an early 13-4 advantage. The Billikens used a 7-0 run to cut the lead to three (14-11) but the Patriots pushed it back to six at 19-13.
 
A 10-2 run by the Billikens pushed SLU to a two-point lead at 23-21, but GM answered back with a 7-2 spurt to go up 30-25. The Patriots took a two-point edge (30-28) into the break.
 
Newton came out of the break scoring, hitting his first four shots (3-3 3pt) to help the Patriots go up 10 at the 15:07 mark of the second stanza. He increased that surge to 6-6 from the floor and 5-5 from 3pt range to keep the Green & Gold ahead by seven (51-44) as SLU started to mount a comeback on the other end of the floor.
 
A Billups 3-pointer pushed the lead to 10 (54-44), but a 12-2 SLU spurt tied the game up at 56-56 with 6:44 to play.
 
GM got it back up to seven (66-59) before the Billikens began their comeback.
 
The Patriots have now reached the 20-win mark for the third-straight season. That has only been done two previous times in program history.

Tuesday's victory marked GM's first at Saint Louis since Jan. 17, 2016.
 
Next up, George Mason returns home for a nationally-televised battle with Saint Joseph's. Tip-off on Saturday (Feb. 15) between the Patriots and Hawks is set for 12:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on USA Network.