Mason comes up short in Dayton

George Mason lost to Dayton in front of a sell out crowd last night 73-67 despite great efforts from Cam Long and Andre Cornelius.  It was one of the worst shooting nights from the field for the Patriots this season yet there were in this game until the closing minutes. Cam Long kept them in the game hitting shots and making plays when they needed it.  Andre Cornelius was hot from the three-point line (5-of-8) but fizzled a little in the second half.  Mason hurt early when Mike Morrison made his usual early 1st half exit due to two quick fouls.  When he returned in the 2nd half he was down right awful.  Ryan Pearson, despite scoring 13 points missed way too many easy shots and threw up some other questionable ones.  Defensively the Patriots weren't quite prepared for a team like Dayton that had the ability to score in a variety of ways.  They had no answer for forward Chris Johnson, who despite playing with an injured groin scored 18 points.  Chris Wright was all over the floor grabbing 9 rebounds and adding 13 points.  For some reason Mason attempted to go right at him with Ryan Pearson in the low post, that resulted in Pearson going 3-for-10 from the field and often killing any runs they tried to amount.  Luke Hancock still doesn't seem a 100% to me with his shoulder injury/soreness. He had a very respectable night scoring 8, getting 5 rebounds and 5 assists but they really needed him to complement Cam Long's scoring in the 2nd half.

A couple things stood out last night that shows the Patriots aren't quite there yet in teams of beating the better teams out there.  First off they need more production from their bench and not just in scoring.  Paris Bennett and Jonathan Arledge aren't always up for playing solid defense. Arledge is aggressive but not really that smart of a defender right now.  Getting no points Isaiah Tate and Vertrail Vaughns is very disappointing when we have seen how they can change a game with their three-point shooting.  Another issue for Mason last night was there rebounding, although they didn't get killed in the category on the final box score they really lost the battle in the beginning of this game.  Their poor rebounding efforts in the 1st half trumped their 44% FG shooting and let Dayton take the lead at the half. And lastly Dayton got to the free-throw line with ease most of the game and really made the Patriots pay for it. In the first half the Flyer were 10-10 from the line and finished the game going 23-for-31 from there, that's just too many points to give up.  Mason got their fair share of free-throws, some on some questionable calls but they couldn't take advantage as much as they needed to.  The Flyers had a lot of players in foul trouble but Mason failed to really take advantage.  

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