Before a school record-tying crowd of 9,840 on Homecoming Saturday, the George Mason men’s basketball team pieced together a pair of big runs to blow by Old Dominion, 62-45, in Colonial Athletic Association action.
The win is the ninth-straight for Mason (19-5, 11-2 CAA), the Patriots’ longest-such streak since the 1998-99 season. Old Dominion dropped to 18-6 and 9-4 in conference play following the loss.
Junior Ryan Pearson recorded his second-straight double-double and fourth of the season with game highs of 18 points and 11 rebounds, and was joined in double figures by 14 points from senior Cam Long and junior Mike Morrison’s 10 points. Leading the way for the Monarchs was Chris Cooper and Kent Bazemore as the duo each chipped in 12 points.
With the victory, Mason also improved to 12-0 at home this season and maintained a share of first place in the conference standings after a narrow four-point win by VCU earlier in the afternoon. The 45 points scored by the Monarchs was their lowest total of the season. The Patriots’ victory was achieved in front of a sell-out crowd, Mason’s first in two seasons and the eighth in program history.
ODU jumped out to a 5-0 lead as the Patriots were unsuccessful on their first five field goal attempts. The start of the game was marked by poor shooting on both ends of the floor, and it took more than 11 minutes for either team to reach double-digits on the scoreboard. Five points would be the largest Monarch lead as the Patriots mounted a 7-2 run to tie the score at 13 after a deep Long 3-pointer.
The Monarchs would get up as much as four before Mason tied it up, and the Patriots took their first lead at 22-19 when Tate buried a trey from the left corner. They would continue to lead until the final buzzer of the first half, taking a 24-21 advantage into the locker room. With ODU narrowly outshooting the Patriots (38.5-to-35.7 percent) in the period, Morrison and Cooper tied for the lead with eight points each.
Mason would begin the half with five of the first seven points scored to make its lead six points, and it would grow to 34-25 as the Patriots used a 10-2 run to create their first real separation of the game. The margin hit double-digits for the first time as a 12-3 run made it 46-31 with under nine minutes remaining.
The difference grew as large as 18 and the Monarchs could not cut it any closer than 12 for the remainder of the game, including a 9-0 run which pushed the lead past the 20-point mark, one of three times late in the second half.
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