George Mason erased an 11-point deficit with four minutes to go in regulation and forced two overtimes, but it wasn’t enough as a Saint Louis buzzer beater pushed the Billikens to a 92-90 win Wednesday night in EagleBank Arena.
In the second overtime, the Patriots (11-8, 4-2 A-10) trailed 90-87 with 21 seconds to go, but a clutch 3-pointer from junior Josh Oduro tied it up at 90-90 at the five second mark. However, Saint Louis (15-6, 6-2) point guard Yuri Collins ran the floor in those final five seconds and laid it in at the buzzer to push the Billikens to victory.
Oduro tied his career high in the game with 32 points (11-22 FG) to go along with six rebounds and three blocks in 42 minutes.
“These are games you have to win when you’re in pursuit of a conference championship, which we are,” head coach Kim English said. “We give a lot of credit to Saint Louis, a team we have great respect for. It was a tough, physical game and they came out on top. It’s a disappointing loss, but I’m incredibly proud of our guys for their fight.”
Five Patriots played at least 40 minutes and showed exceptional grit in the game.
In addition to Oduro’s performance, graduate student DeVon Cooper notched a season-best 22 points and made 5-of-11 3-pointers, including four big ones in the second half as the Patriots mounted their comeback.
Junior Davonte Gaines added his sixth double-double, matching his 12 points with a career-best 17 rebounds in a game-high 50 minutes played. It marked the first 17-rebound game by a Patriot since Marquise Moore had 17 in a March 2017 A-10 Tournament game vs. VCU in Pittsburgh. He’s just the third Patriot to tally a 17-rebound game since 2010-11.
Mason neutralized SLU’s lethal offensive rebounding attack, holding a +6 (17-11) edge in second chance points for the game. However, the Patriots turned it over 17 times, which ultimately proved to be the difference in the contest. The Billikens held a +10 (21-11) advantage in points off turnovers for the game.
Collins finished with a game-high 35 points and dished out 13 assists for Saint Louis.
Mason jumped out to a 14-7 lead, but an 18-2 spurt from the Billikens pushed Saint Louis ahead 25-16 at the 9:06 mark of the half. Mason cut it to five at 30-25 on a Cooper 3-pointer, but another 6-0 run from SLU pushed the visitor edge to 11 (36-25). The Patriots scored eight of the final 10 points of the half to cut the deficit at the break to five (38-33).
SLU pushed its edge to 13 (52-39) at the 13:59 mark of the second half and led 73-62 with 4:08 to go. The Patriots stormed back with an 11-0 run of their own, capped by an Xavier Johnson lay-in to tie it at 73-73 with 1:56 left. SLU hit a big 3-pointer to go up 76-73 with 39 seconds left, but a huge triple from Cooper tied the score and Mason got a big stop on the Billikens’ final possession to force overtime.
In the first extra session, Mason went up five (81-76) after a 3-point play from Oduro with 3:07 left. A 5-0 spurt from the Billikens tied it up at 81. Neither team could score in the final 2:03, and Mason could not capitalize on its final possession of the session.
In the second overtime, SLU held a +2 (11-9) edge to leave Fairfax with the win.
The Patriots begin a two-game road swing with a Saturday contest at La Salle. Tip-off between the Patriots and Explorers is set for 2 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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