Senior CAA Player of the Year candidate Ryan Pearson posted his 12th double-double of the season and the George Mason men’s basketball team staved off a late Lamar rally, downing the Cardinals 75-71 on Saturday afternoon. The win, part of the Sears BracketBusters series, was the fifth-straight for Mason (23-6), while the Cardinals dropped to 17-10.
Pearson had game-highs of 17 points and 10 rebounds, and was joined in double figures by sophomore Sherrod Wright who chipped in 13 points. Three Cardinals reached double-digit scoring, led by 13 points from Brandon Davis.
The Patriots led by as many as three before the Cardinals embarked on a 12-0 run, holding Mason off the board for more than three and a half minutes and building a 21-12 lead. The Patriots responded with a 12-0 run of their own in kind, part of a larger 27-3 scoring spree in which they held Lamar to no field goals for more than eight and a half minutes. The run was ended by a Mike James jumper at the 4:58 mark, but followed by a highlight-reel dunk by Erik Copes matched the 15-point lead as the largest of the half.
Mason went on to a 13-point halftime lead of 47-34, representing the most first-half scoring for the Patriots this season. It was fueled by 68 percent field goal shooting (17-25), compared to a 46.2 percent mark (12-26) for Lamar. Mason also won the rebounding battle, 13-12, in the opening 20 minutes.
The Patriot lead remained in double digits for more than 10 minutes into the second half, but the Cardinals chipped away and got it to seven, 57-50, after a James jumper. That was part of a stretch where Lamar outscored the Patriots by a 25-11 margin, eventually retaking the lead on a James fast-break dunk at the 3:21 mark.
Mason responded with an Andre Cornelius 3-pointer inside of three minutes, and a Bryon Allen jumper 50 seconds later pushed the Patriot advantage to 73-69. A pair of Davis free throws at the 1:49 mark cut it back to one possession, but Pearson sank two free throws of his own with six seconds remaining after grabbing the rebound off an Anthony Miles missed jumper, securing the win on Senior Day. Prior to the game, Pearson and Cornelius were honored along with Mike Morrison and team manager Killian Reilly in the final home game of their careers.
The Patriots close out the 2011-12 regular season with a two-game road trip, beginning Wednesday night at Northeastern. Tip-off from Matthews Arena in Boston is set for 7 p.m.
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