The George Mason men’s basketball team used four double-figure scoring performances along with staunch defense to take a 71-47 victory over Drexel Wednesday night at the Patriot Center. The win improves the Patriots’ Colonial Athletic Association record to 5-2 (13-5 overall), while the Dragons fell to 11-6, 3-4 in CAA play.
Sophomore Luke Hancock led the quartet with 16 points and fell one rebound short of a double-double, leading a Mason effort which won the battle of the boards by a 40-to-31 margin. In a game marked by 51 combined team fouls, Hancock was nearly perfect from the line as he connected on a career-high 11 of 12 free throw attempts. Senior Cam Long contributed 14 points while juniors Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius chipped in 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Chris Fouch was Drexel’s lone double-figure scorer, as the CAA’s second-leading scorer was limited to just 11 points. On the game, 15 of the Dragons’ 17 field goals came from the paint, as they were limited to just one 3-point field goal.
A combined 1-for-11 start from the field by both teams left the score tied at two more than five minutes into the game, but five straight points off the hand of Hancock made it 7-2. Drexel cut it to three before an 8-0 run pushed the Mason lead to double digits at 17-6 more than halfway through the opening period.
The Dragons answered with back-to-back buckets and moved within seven, but another Patriots response made the gap as large as 12. Drexel fought back to whittle the lead down to four at 25-21, but a counter by the Patriots saw five of the next six points go to the Green and Gold. The Dragons would get as close as four late in the half at 32-28 before the Patriots expanded their lead to 37-30 at the half.
Mason was led by 11 points from Hancock, including a 6-for-6 performance in the first half at the line. Samme Givens’ nine points paced the Dragons, who scored all 12 of their first-half field goals in the paint.
A 12-4 run out of the locker room made it 49-34 with over six minutes expired, Mason’s largest lead of the game to that point. It would grow as large as 24 at 71-47, the final margin.
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