George Mason escapes opener with wild OT thriller against Rhode Island

Not exactly how Paul Hewitt wanted to get his first George Mason victory but the Patriots escaped Friday night with a win. Early on it was not pretty and Mason looked very undisciplined on defense.  It was obvious from the opening tip these were not your Larranaga branded Patriots any more. There were 22 lead changes and 17 ties in this one and a last second three-pointer by Rhode Island forced the overtime period.  Once in the Patriots settled a bit in overtime it was two crucial steals by freshman Corey Edwards that help seal the victory.  

Let's look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly of this game.

The GOOD

-Ryan Pearson stepped up when the team needed him, scoring 28 points and pulling down 12 rebounds, he was also a vocal leader in his first game as a senior.

-The freshman played well in this one. Erik Copes showed off his brute strength and aggression and one of his emphatic blocks lead to a Corey Edwards lay-up on the other end.  Edwards, looked confortable running the point and Hewitt definitely has confidence in the him considering he was out there in overtime.

-Sherrod Wright and Bryon Allen looked really good driving the lane last night.  Wright is starting to look like he can take it to the hole at will.  When the transition was working it was these guys making plays.

-Despite starting off terribly from the field, Mason really turned things around in the second half and credit needs to be given as they bounced back. They showed poise which will help when they get into this situation again this season.

The BAD

-The breakdowns on defense were a glaring weakness for Mason.  Rhode Island's Jamal Wilson, whose previous high for scoring was 14, finished with 38 last night. Boy did they miss Andre Cornelius last night.  Wilson had way too easy a time getting to the rim and in overtime he scored nine straight for the Rams. Allowing that is just unacceptable.  

-Mike Morrison is a senior now and this team needs him to be a leader. He had a solid night contributing 11 points but his kicking and screaming routine when he fouls out is starting to get old. Yes, a lot of the refs calls last night were questionable but it is not the reason this game was so close.

-Rebounding have got to improve for Hewitt's uptempo offense to work. They finished the game with a slight edge in this department over the Rams but in the early goings it killed them.  When you can't defend or rebound the uptempo pace is difficult to run and this why the Patriots fell into a hole early in the first half.

The UGLY

-As Goff of the Post points out, "at one point in the first half, they were 6 for 26 from the field, 0 for 6 on three-pointers and 3 for 7 from the free throw line." They battled back with better shooting numbers from the field in the second half and OT but overall their outside shooting was dreadful.  It is pretty obvious this team's offensive philosophy is not as much behind the three-point line as Mason fans are used to, but they need better nights than this. The free-throw shooting troubles seem to be a recurring theme in Fairfax, despite the head coach.  They left numerous opportunities to separate or pull ahead at the charity stripe, Rhode Island really took advantage of them in this category

-In-bounding the ball for Mason was a difficult task.  Sherrod Wright did most of the duties and on at least three occasions, had his in-bound pass intercepted and put right into the basket for the Rams. That is just embarrassing, no matter what level of basketball you are playing. It was painful to watch, every in-bounds play shouldn't look like a hail mary pass.  Luckily this is something easily fixable in practice.