– stock.adobe.com)
George Mason put together a complete performance during Saturday’s 64-46 win over A-10 regular season champion Richmond inside EagleBank Arena.
The Patriots (20-11, 9-9 A-10) earned the win on the defensive end of the floor, where the Patriots held the Spiders (23-8, 15-3 A-10) to just 41.3 percent shooting and a 26.7 percent clip from beyond the arc.
The 46 points marked Richmond’s lowest output of the season.
Offensively, the Patriots shot 52 percent against Richmond’s top-30 defense and made 41.2 percent of their attempts from three-point range (7-of-7).
The win gives the Patriots 20 pre-conference tournament victories for the first time since 2011-2012 and first time in its Atlantic 10 era.
Mason will now open the A-10 Championship as the No. 8 seed. The Patriots will play No. 9 Saint Joseph’s on Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
“As exciting as this game was, this also was a game for our [seniors],” head coach Tony Skinn (’06) said. “Those four guys decided to take a chance on a first-year head coach. Nights like this, this means the world to me because they took a chance on me and they laid the foundation for our program. It’s a testament to our players, how they’ve gone through the turbulence over the course of the year and they didn’t break or fold. We couldn’t ask for better momentum going into the A-10 Tournament.”
Junior guard Jared Billups led the defensive charge with outstanding work on Richmond star Jordan King. After King scored 31 points on 11-of-15 shooting in the January matchup at the Robins Center, Billups held King to just two points on three total shots Saturday.
Senior Darius Maddox continued his torrid pace of late with a game-high 18 points on just nine shots. He went 7-of-9 from the floor and 3-of-4 from 3pt range in 32 minutes of work.
Graduate forward Amari Kelly added 14 points (6-11 FG) and seven rebounds, while senior Woody Newton tallied his first career double-double with 12 points and a personal-best 11 rebounds.
Freshman point guard Baraka Ojokie dished out a game-high five assists to go along with eight points and three steals, while senior Ronald Polite III added seven points and three assists.
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Chris Graham
