George Mason rolls past Florida Atlantic

It was another impressive defensive night for the Patriots as head coach Jim Larranaga picked up his 250th win at George Mason. However this time there was not a barrage of three pointers and they got a lot of points inside from Mike Morrison, who led all scorers in a game for the first time this season. Morrison had scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half, a lot of them effortlessly through dunking on the undersized Owls. The Patriots finished the 1st half shooting almost 60% from the field and continued that in the 2nd.   Cam Long (6 assists) and Luke Hancock (7) continue to distribute the ball well and in these last two games the Patriots have been playing much improved 'team' basketball. The box score might show that the rebounding stats where about even but the Patriots weren't getting enough of the meaningful rebounds they should have.  The undersized Florida Atlantic squad got 9 offensive boards while Mason only had 4.  Coming into the game Florida Atlantic got to the free throw line a lot and Mason did a good job staying out of foul trouble and not letting them take advantage at the line.  

Mason didn't get a lot help from their bench in this one.  In the 2nd half they got zero points from their bench players and it seemed like Larranaga still don't trust a reserve heavy lineup in the 2nd half even with a 10 point lead.  Larranaga has criticized the defensive efforts of his 'green team' so far this year and they need to improve in this area before the CAA schedule kicks in.  You can say what you want to about the team's depth being improved over last season but most of the guys, outside of Isaiah Tate, just don't have a lot of experience and it has been showing in their defensive efforts.

College Basketball

Next up for the Patriots is the Battle of the Orange Line Part II this Wednesday.