RICHMOND, Va. – The George Mason University men's basketball team (21-4, 9-3) fell behind early and could not dig out of the deficit during an 82-70 loss to Richmond on Tuesday night inside the Robins Center.
The Spiders hit eight first half triples and led by as many as 25 in the first half before taking a 49-29 edge into the break. GMU held a +8 (41-33) scoring edge in the second half and closed the game on a 21-7 run, but it was not enough to offset the hot-shooting Richmond offense.
With Saint Joseph's loss to Fordham Tuesday, the Patriots keep a two-game lead for third place in the A-10 standings.
"That's not George Mason Basketball," head coach
Tony Skinn ('06) said. "My message to the team was that Richmond was going to give us everything they had. [The record] doesn't matter. I just thought the first two minutes, their toughness and their effort level, taking us out of offense, moving and cutting at a high level – that set the tone."
Fatt Hill led the Patriots with a season-best 23 points (8-11 FG) and grabbed eight rebounds in 35 minutes.
Riley Allenspach added 16 points, four rebounds and three steals, while
Nick Ellington chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds in 25 minutes of action.
Richmond hit 12-of-31 triples (.387) on the night overall and held a +24 scoring edge beyond the arc, as the Patriots went 4-of-17 (.235) from deep. That proved to be the difference in the game.
The Spiders hit seven of their first 11 3-pointers and jumped out to a 31-9 advantage. Richmond extended the edge to 25 (39-14), but a 13-4 GMU run cut the deficit to 16 (43-27). UR got it back to 20 (49-29) at the half.
With the Spiders ahead 63-39 early in the second half, GMU used a 7-0 spurt to cut the edge to 17 (63-46) with 12:31 to go. Richmond moved back ahead by 26 at 75-49 and the Patriots could not move closer than 12 for the remainder of the game.
Next up, George Mason wraps up its road trip with a Friday night contest at DMV rival George Washington. Tip-off in Foggy Bottom between the Patriots and Revolutionaries is set for 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network.
