George Mason gets win in OT, back atop A-10 Basketball standings

George Mason gutted out a 58-53 OT win over Loyola Chicago on Wednesday night in Fairfax, to maintain its lead in the A-10 regular-season race.

Mason (16-5, 7-1 A-10, NET: 71) surrendered a seven-point lead, going scoreless in the final 4:13, but the defense shut down the Ramblers (12-8, 3-4 A-10, NET: 150) in the OT, holding them to 0-of-8 shooting in the extra period.

The win gives the Patriots a one-game lead over VCU (16-5, 6-2 A-10, NET: 47) and Saint Louis (13-8, 6-2 A-10, NET: 106) in the A-10 standings.

VCU had entered the week tied with Mason atop the A-10, but the Rams lost at Saint Louis, 78-69, on Tuesday.

You might have seen the video of a brawl involving fans in the stands behind the VCU bench in the final couple of minutes of that one.

UVA Basketball fans have an interest in a couple of these teams because of their coaches. We’ve been writing about the interest of the committee leading the search for a permanent replacement for Tony Bennett listing VCU coach Ryan Odom among the top candidates for the job.

I’m also hearing now that North Carolina, where fourth-year coach Hubert Davis is reportedly on the hot seat, has interest in Odom, a Durham, N.C., native.

I’ve also heard of interest from the UVA folks in the Loyola Chicago coach, Drew Valentine, who is 70-47 in four seasons at the school.

Getting back to Mason: the Patriots are probably going to need to win the A-10 Tournament to get the conference’s automatic bid, given the relatively weak nonconference schedule (ranked 183rd in the NET metric), and lack of Quad 1 wins (0-2 thus far) and just one more Q1 game on the schedule, at VCU.