That defensive effort fueled Mason’s 12th home victory of the season.
After a difficult offensive week in the previous two games, the Patriots (14-12, 6-7 A-10) shot 52 percent Saturday and made 8-of-20 from three.
“I think we have a resilient group,” George Mason coach Kim English said. “We’ve taken whatever’s been thrown at us this season and have continued to improve and get better. We’ve learned from our flaws. We took our worst loss in two seasons the other night in Pittsburgh. I thought our guys responded really well against a team [Rhode Island] that’s had some success.”
Josh Oduro paced the Patriots with a season-high 27 points on an extremely efficient 12-of-14 shooting day.
Ronald Polite III just missed a double-double with 15 points and a game-high nine assists, while Davonte Gaines also tallied 15 points (6-of-8 FG) and grabbed nine rebounds in 37 minutes.
DeVon Cooper rounded out the double-figure scoring with 11 points (3-5 FG) and grabbed four rebounds.
Rhode Island (8-16, 4-8 A-10) led 24-14 at the 9:18 mark of the first half, but the Patriots responded with a 9-0 run to cut the edge to one. Mason moved in front by five at 34-29 and took a 36-33 advantage into the break.
An 11-3 run early in the second half pushed Mason in front by 11 (53-42) and the Patriots extended the edge to 13 (64-51) on a Polite III 3-point play with 10:03 left. Rhode Island moved back within four (66-62) with 3:40 left, but that’s as close as the Rams could get, as Mason hit some big shots and got stops down the stretch.
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Chris Graham
