Previewing George Mason at Hofstra

George Mason travels to Hempstead, NY to take on the Hofstra Pride tonight, trying to win their fifth game in the a row.  The Pride starting off the season promising beating Cleveland St. (RPI #67) and Iona (#49) but have struggled mightily in CAA play (1-8).  They have had some close games but can't seem to get over the hump. They have some guards that can score but are an average shooting team.  One thing they do well is get to the free-throw line, something they have done more than any other CAA this season. They have six players that shoot better than 70% from the free-throw line.  However, like Mason they are not a three-point shooting team and are 11th in the CAA in three-pointers made this season. Guard Mike Moore and wing Nathaniel Lester are each capable of scoring 20+ a night and will be the focus for Mason on defnes. Andre Cornelius will most likely be match-up on  Moore and that leaves Vertrail Vaughns and Sherrod Wright to cover Lester. Vaughns and Wright have been doing better on defense lately but this will be a match-up to keep an eye on. 

Hofstra has had their struggles with turnovers this season and most recently coughed up the ball 18 times against VCU. The Patriots forced a lot of turnovers against UNCW on Monday night which led to easy fast break points. They should be able to do that again tonight against a team that averages more than 15 turnovers a game.

Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison should have another good showing tonight as Hofstra doesn't have much of a front court presence.  The Pride will struggle if those two get going early because they are not deep at forward and these guys have been getting to the line a lot recently.

The Patriots have had some tough games recently on the road and they will need to stick to their game plan on offense tonight.  UNCW forced them into taking ill-advised three-pointers and it disrupted their rhythm.  In their last two road games they blew leads at Drexel and JMU and didn't do a good job of playing the entire 40 minutes.  Hofstra would love nothing better than to unseat first place George Mason tonight in their house.

Notes: Game is not televised. Also Erik Copes practiced on Wednesday, more from Dick Patrick:

"Freshman post Erik Copes, who missed his fourth consecutive game, did a workout this past Wednesday, his first on-court activity since his frightening fall against Drexel that left him with a bruised back, shoulder and neck.

He said that he was still sore after the workout. "I want to play (Wednesday at Hofstra), but I'm not sure they'll let me play," he said.

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