George Mason erased a 10-point deficit with less than four minutes to go, then powered past Saint Joseph’s in overtime to pick up a resilient 75-70 triumph in Hagan Arena Wednesday night.
The Patriots Mason (13-11, 6-5) trailed 60-50 with 3:33 left in regulation, but stormed back with a 13-2 run over the next 3:25 to go up 64-62 with eight seconds left. SJU’s Jordan Hall hit a last-second jumper to send the game into overtime, but in the extra session, Mason held a 11-6 scoring edge, buoyed by seven points from A-10 leading scorer Josh Oduro.
“We’re trying to reestablish our identity as a defensive team,” head coach Kim English said. “When we had those six games in 11 days, we lost our defensive edge. We have to get that back. In overtime and those last four minutes, we did that. We put together some stops which led to scores, and holding them to 20 percent in overtime was great. It’s just about us continuing to grow on that end of the floor. We’ve been in these types of ball games all season. The VCU game was an outlier for us. It’s good for us to start to find a way to come out on top in games like this.”
Oduro led Mason with a career-best 33 points (12-28), grabbed eight rebounds and proved dominant throughout the contest. He has averaged 32 points in two games against the Hawks this season and Wednesday’s effort marked his fourth 30+ point showing of 2021-22.
Mason packed a lethal 1-2 punch Wednesday, as graduate student D’Shawn Schwartz also proved quite efficient offensively. The Colorado Springs, Colo., product tallied 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting (3-6 3pt FG) and dished out four assists in 41 minutes.
Point guard Xavier Johnson added 13 points, three assists and two steals in 44 minutes of play.
Mason held the Hawks to 41.4 percent from the floor, including 1-of-5 shooting in overtime, and 28.6 percent (10-35) from 3pt range. The Patriots also turned 13 Saint Joseph’s turnovers into a decisive 19-3 advantage in points off turnovers for the contest.
The two teams played to an 8-8 tie, before nine-straight points from Oduro pushed Mason ahead, 17-8. A 10-3 run moved the Hawks back within two (22-20) and SJU closed the half on an 8-0 spurt to go up 30-27 at the break.
The Patriots moved within one (41-40) on a 3-pointer from Johnson at the 13:35 mark of the second half and Mason pushed ahead by two (45-43) after two free throws from the point guard. The Hawks re-took the lead at 50-47, then utilized a 10-0 spurt moments later to build a 10-point edge (60-50).
But at that point, the Patriots began their impressive comeback which ultimately pushed Mason to its fourth road win of the season.
Next up, Mason remains on the road for a 2 p.m. contest at Fordham on Sunday in the Bronx. The game will be televised nationally on USA Network.
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