George Mason dropped its regular season finale to UMass by the score of 83-80 in overtime on Saturday afternoon inside EagleBank Arena.
The Patriots led 52-42 with 13:50 to play in regulation and 77-73 with 1:40 to go in overtime. But each time, UMass battled back to ultimately push the visitors to victory.
Mason (14-15, 7-9 A-10) enters the A-10 Tournament as the No. 9 seed and will take on No. 8 Fordham Thursday at 12 p.m. in second round action at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
“This is a disappointing loss for us,” head coach Kim English said. “UMass played really well, particularly on the offensive end. They are a top-25 offense and when you let UMass play offense, they can beat anyone. It was our emphasis to not make this an offensive game. That should’ve been the mindset and should’ve been the focus of the game. It wasn’t.”
Mason limited UMass to just 32.4 percent (12-37) in the first half and 23.1 percent (3-13) from 3pt range. But in the second half, the Minutemen made 48.1 percent of their attempts (13-27) from the floor. The Patriots had the opposite showing, shooting 54.2 percent (13-24) in the opening half to build a 41-33 advantage at the break. But Mason made 33.3 percent in the second half (9-27) and 40 percent (4-10) in overtime.
UMass held a +10 edge (45-35) on the glass and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds on the day.
Graduate student D’Shawn Schwartz tallied a team-best 21 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists. It marked his ninth 20-point game of the season.
Fellow grad DeVon Cooper made 5-of-8 3-pointers on Senior Day and finished with 19 points in 37 minutes. He now ranks sixth in single season school history with 77 made triples on the year. Schwartz is seventh with 75 for the campaign.
Junior Josh Oduro added 16 points, six rebounds and three blocks in 40 minutes on the floor, while junior Davonte Gaines added 11 points and six rebounds in 32 minutes.
In addition to Cooper and Schwartz, Mason also honored Blake Buchanan, Jamal Hartwell II and Max Ma for their contributions to the program in a pregame senior ceremony.
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AFP
