George Mason falls to Northeastern in overtime

Another sloppy game for the Patriots last night, but this time they couldn't find the needed heroics to come away with the victory.  There were 41 fouls and 43 total turnovers in this game, with the Huskies killing the Patriots at the foul line.  If you need to see how badly they had the advantage at the free throw line just look at the four factors chart below. Junior guard Jonathan Lee had a career-high 27 points, most of which he got at the free-throw line (18-20 from FT). It was astonishing to watch how many times the Patriots sent this kid to the line, over and over again. Some of the fouls on Lee late in the game were above the three-point line, which was just ridiculous in a close game. In the second half, that coupled with sloppiness on defense prevented them from going on any kind of run. Despite Mason's miscues they managed a new season-high for assists in a game, 24. Bryon Allen dished out 13 them but also had a team-high six turnovers.  Two of his erratic passes towards the closing moments of game were devastating to Mason and basically ended the game for them.  I would not be surprised if this spurs Corey Edwards to handle the point more against VCU on Saturday.

Offense wasn't the problem last night, but efficiency on defense was.  The sloppiness snowballed and you could see the demeanor of the team was declining late in the second half. As the frustration mounted the shot selection suffered.  Aside from big three-pointers by Vertrail Vaughns and Ryan Pearson, the Patriots were lucky to make it into overtime.  Northeastern's defense would constantly collapse on Pearson and would not let him get into a rhythm. Mike Morrison took advantage but in the end it just wasn't enough. The Huskies beat the Patriots at their own game, getting to the free-throw line often and converting in transition.  

Not what we had hoped to see from Mason at this point in the year, especially with the battle for the #2 seed happening this Saturday at VCU and the CAA tournament beginning a week from tomorrow.  This team has been difficult to get a read on all season but it's not like most of us didn't see this loss coming.  The writing has been on the walls for awhile now with amount of turnovers and lapses on defense we have seen this year.  Will this loss be the final gut check for this team, or is it too late for that? Certainly a win against VCU on Saturday will make us all forget about this game but you still might have that feeling that any CAA team can beat us in the conference tournament, and that's unsettling. Some are saying this officially ends the at-large talk, but I don't believe this team should have been in that "talk" anyway.  I'm more concerned with that how this team will do in Richmond next weekend and it we saw anything again like we did last night it's going to be an early exit for the Patriots.

_______________________

On a side note, I think it's time to retire the black jerseys. Mason is 0-2 this season with them, with the other loss coming against UVA back in December.  Someone correct me if I am wrong but I think these are the last four results of the team wearing black uniforms:

2/22/2012 - Loss at Northeastern 85-82 OT
12/6/2012 - Loss at UVA 68-48
3/23/2004 - Loss at Oregon 68-54 (NIT)
3/8/2004 - Loss to VCU 55-54 (CAA finals)

Let's stick with the green and gold.

NCAA Basketball Stats

College Basketball Stats