Sherrod Wright's late game heroics lift George Mason past Hofstra

George Mason played another one down to the wire last night but the got the road win against Hofstra to remain in first place. Sherrod Wright finished with 15 points and had a three-point play that helped seal the victory for the Patriots in the last two minutes.  Wright's three-point play put Mason up 51-50 with 1:46 remaining then after a Hofstra miss freshman Corey Edwards hit two clutch free-throws to put away the game.  It feels like I keep saying that Mason is edging out victories in these sloppy games and they are but the important thing to remember here is that they are in fact winning them.  Not only are they winning them but they are getting contributions from different guys every night.


Last night no starters reached double-figures and only two had more than three points, Bryon Allen and Vertrail Vaughns went scoreless. Sherrod Wright stepped up big time and is flourishing in this new role off the bench. He gives Mason that pop off the bench like Isaiah Tate and Vertail Vaughns did last season. However, if you had told me before the game that this team would have won a road game with all that happening and especially Ryan Pearson only scoring nine points, I would not have believed you. In fact the Patriots' bench out-scored Hofstra's bench 36-6 while also controlling the boards. Sophomore Jonathan Arledge has averaged nine points over the past three games and is starting to become a viable option off the bench for Paul Hewitt. Freshman Corey Edwards has had some ups and downs this season, as every freshman does, but he was clutch last night hitting those two free-throws and adding a late three-pointer in the 2nd half. Winning these types of games is something that builds team chemistry and is something they will have to keep doing to get to the CAA tournament finals this season. However some of the numbers from this game were ugly.

In first half the Patriots went 4-for-23 from the field (17.4%) and had numerous turnovers. They finished the game with 18 turnovers which continues to be an alarming stat when they still have to play VCU twice.  I mention VCU because they are #2 in the national right now when it comes to takeaways, both steals per game and total steals on the year.  Mason just has to clean this up, that's all there is to it.  They overcame these struggles last night by taking better shots in the second half (45.8% FG), hitting key three-points, and getting to the line late in the game.

Notes: Freshman Erik Copes dressed for the game last night but didn't play (coaches decision), however I would expect him back Saturday for the JMU game.  Also, Ryan Pearson took a hard shot to the mouth that swelled up his lip pretty bad.  Doesn't seem like anything serious though.

The Hofstra student section put much more effort into their signs to taunt Andre Cornelius than the Drexel students did. Sign of respect?

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