Mason continues on roll

For the third straight game the George Mason men’s basketball team pieced together a double-digit run spanning both halves, and it once again led to victory as the Patriots defeated William & Mary, 85-69, in Colonial Athletic Association action Saturday afternoon at Kaplan Arena. The win was the seventh straight for Mason (17-5, 9-2 CAA), while the Tribe dropped to 6-16 and 2-9 in CAA play.

Five Patriots scored in double-figures, led by a 20-point day from senior Cam Long, the reigning conference player of the week. Sophomore Luke Hancock chipped in 17 while juniors Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius added 15 and 13 points each. Senior Isaiah Tate rounded out the quintet with 10 points. Quinn McDowell led the four Tribe scorers in double digits as he contributed 16.

Mason scored the final five points of the first half to take the lead and kept the run going into the second half, scoring the first five points and keeping the Tribe off the board until McDowell’s 3-pointer three minutes in. The run extended to 9-3 to make the lead 11 points, Mason’s largest of the game until the 11:28 mark when Isaiah Tate laid it in and converted the old-fashioned 3-point play, leaving the score 61-48. The margin would grow as large as 19 at 75-56 after an alley-oop dunk by Hancock at the 7:21 mark and again three more times in the final moments of the game.

The Patriots scored first with a layup by Morrison and after a 3-pointer by the Tribe, a 9-0 run by Mason made it 11-3 with just over three minutes expired. W&M answered with seven in a row to cut it to one and the teams traded baskets before a McDowell runner put the Tribe ahead, 14-13.

A trey by Long keyed a stretch of five straight Mason points, but the teams would swap the lead five times before the Tribe would take a lead as large as four. W&M continued to lead until Cornelius’ 3-pointer at the three-minute mark tied the game at 35.

The teams swapped buckets before a layup by Cornelius moved Mason ahead, 39-37, inside of a minute left. Long hit a running 3-pointer as the clock expired to send the Patriots into the locker room up 42-37. Hancock along with Long led the way in the half, scoring 11 and 10 points, respectively.