JV's late basket helps Mason revail at Trask

John Vaughan had a reverse lay-up in the closing seconds at Trask Coliseum to help Mason escape with a win there for the first time in 5 years. The six-game road losing streak has finally come to an end. JV also ended the game with his highest rebounding total of his career (11) and posters at CAAZone.com are saying he was also coaching in the second half. Perhaps Larranaga was unhappy to see his team on the verge of unfolding on the road yet again and tried to teach them something by taking a seat in the 2nd half. Hopefully it's the kind of spark this young squad needs to get before the conference tournament. Mason still made many mistakes in this one that they had previously been making in other road games this season. Granted UNCW was making threes at a ridiculous rate late in this one, but the Patriots should have saw that coming with the clock winding down. With no inside game, where did you think they were going to go? The fact that no Mason forward got more than 10 points in this one is a little disheartening, but Morrison finished with another strong game. Although Dre Smith led the Patriots with 13, he still took a some very questionable long range shots......again. Smith got most of his points off lay-ups via driving to the lane, something we don't see him do enough. Cam Long started off 3-for-3 from the 3-point line and then went 0-for-6 throwing up some erratic shots when the Patriots didn't need a three. A win is a win, and with VCU and Northeastern victorious the Patriots needed to it to keep pace in the first-round bye field.