– stock.adobe.com)
George Mason earned a piece of the A-10 regular-season championship with a 64-60 win at Richmond on Saturday night.
VCU (25-6, 15-3 A-10, NET: 31) will be the #1 seed in next week’s conference tournament, by virtue of the Rams’ 70-54 win over Mason (24-7, 15-3 A-10, NET: 77) last month in the Siegel Center.
Dayton’s 79-76 win at VCU last night opened the door for the Patriots to get a chance to hang a banner.
It wasn’t easy.
Richmond (10-21, 5-13 A-10) led by eight at the half and by as many as nine early in the second half.
The Patriots fought back to tie the game at 52-52 with 6:02 after a three from Darius Maddox.
Richmond retook the lead at 58-57 on a Jonathan Beagle free throw with 3:23 to go, but Maddox scored Mason’s next six points to put GMU up 63-60 with 2:10 left.
Richmond would not score for the remainder of the game.
Maddox scored 15 of his game-high 18 points in the second half. He made 6-of-10 field goals and 5-of-8 three-pointers on the night.
Jalen Haynes added 11 points and eight rebounds.
“This is truly a blessing,” Mason coach Tony Skinn said. “I said when I got this job that I was going to work my butt off to get us back to where we belong. It starts with our leadership. Dr. Washington boldly chose to give an opportunity to a guy who had never been a head coach. His faith and support, along with Marvin Lewis, are a big part of how we were able to build this roster. This is what can happen when you approach things the right way. I’m so proud of our team.”
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Chris Graham
