Top seed VCU and #2 seed George Mason each advanced with quarterfinal-round victories in the A-10 Tournament on Friday.
For Mason (25-7, NET: 74), the 80-65 win over #7 seed George Washington keeps hope alive for an NCAA Tournament bid.
The Patriots, despite the gaudy won-loss record, will need to win the conference tournament to get an invite to the Big Dance, with their metrics not being anywhere near where they’d need to be to get an at-large berth.
VCU (26-6, NET: 32), a 76-59 winner over #8 seed St. Bonaventure, is the beneficiary of more love from the computers, despite a weak non-conference strength of schedule (287, vs. Mason’s 163).
The Rams, who play Loyola-Chicago (22-10, NET: 109) on Saturday, are probably safe at this point.
In the win over the Bonnies (22-11, NET: 94), VCU led by 10 at the half, after closing out the half on a 9-3 run over the final 3:24, and a 9-0 second-half run opened up a 15-point lead with 6:38 left after a pair of free throws from backup guard Zeb Jackson that shut this one down for good.
Jack Clark led VCU with 17 points.
Mason had a tougher time putting away GW (21-12, NET: 119), which led 42-38 at the break.
The Patriots came out of the locker room with a 12-0 scoring burst that put them up eight at the first media timeout, and another big run, 12-1 over a nearly six-minute stretch, put the game away.
Jalen Haynes led Mason with 24 points.
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Chris Graham
