Patriots have 7-game win streak snapped at Georgia State

Well the Patriots were brought down to earth last night in Atlanta as the Georgia State Panthers pulled off a 61-57 victory riding the career-night from sophomore guard Jihad Ali and holding Cam Long to 2 points. After the road performances we saw at Tulane, GW, and Radford you knew this team wasn't going streak through the CAA schedule by collecting road wins in February. This team has been overachieving so far and even after this loss is still in a three-way tie for 1st place in the CAA. It would have been nice to get this win against a bottom dwelling CAA before the Patriots run through the gauntlet of Drexel, VCU, ODU, and William & Mary.

You can't blame this loss on Cam Long, although his lackluster performance did cripple the Patriots late in the 2nd half. Despite that, the Panthers Jihad Ali, who averaged 4 PPG coming into this one, dropped 22 last night on the Patriots, including the game-winning three-pointer, for which he was left wide-open. The guy had the hot hand all night and Mason just looked confused on that play by the Panthers, which was ridiculous. That breakdown coupled with no one stepping up late offensively spelled the end for Mason, who were still surprisingly in the game late despite a dreadful first half shooting. The Patriots never really got on a roll, didn't force many turnovers, and didn't push the tempo or create fast break opportunities. Georgia State made Mason play their style and slowed the game down. During the Patriots 7-game win streak they were doing an excellent job of getting to the free-throw line and making opponents pay but in this one they managed to get to the line for only 8 attempts (see Four Factors graphic below).

Although Cam Long is entitled to having an off night, considering he was fueling the teams' winning streak with 20 point performances, the Patriots have got to find a way to win without him. Someone else needed to step up last night, Pearson and Cornelius tried but often too ill advised shots down the stretch. Larranaga's offense has always had a balance attack and never relied on a one guy so I don't think this is going to be an on going problem for the Patriots. However expect to see the Patriots endure a bumpy ride over the next week.

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