George Mason could not overcome a difficult offensive first half during a 72-59 setback to VCU on Sunday.
Mason (11-3, 0-1 A-10) shot 30.3 percent in the opening frame and made 2-of-13 3-point attempts as VCU (12-3, 2-0 A-10) climbed out to a 33-22 lead. The Patriots made a much improved 11-of-24 attempts (.458) in the second half, but could not move closer than six for the rest of the contest.
The poor shooting ultimately doomed the Patriots, who held a +5 turnover margin against the pressure-oriented Rams. VCU entered the game top-10 in the nation in turnover margin (+6.4).
“I thought defensively VCU created problems for us and [Marcus] Santos-Silva had a great game,” head coach Dave Paulsen said. “From our perspective, today on January 5, VCU is better than us. Now we have to work to narrow that gap, and from a mental perspective, that’s about bouncing back and being resilient when things don’t go our way.”
Four Patriots scored at least 10 points in the contest, led by junior Javon Greene who tallied 13 to go along with four assists, three steals and three rebounds.
Justin Kier and Jordan Miller each chipped in 11 points, while freshman Xavier Johnson had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Kier and Johnson helped Mason hold a 26-13 edge in bench scoring for the game.
Mason had open shots early but started 0-of-8 from 3-point range. VCU jumped out to a 6-0 lead, but the Patriots tied it up at 10-10. The Green & Gold trailed 17-16 with 6:56 to go in the first half, but at that point, VCU rattled off a 12-2 spurt to go up 29-18 with 3:06 to go in the stanza. The Rams took a 33-22 edge into the break.
Mason quickly cut it to six (35-29) on a jumper from Jamal Hartwell II at the 18:19 mark of the second half and the Patriots trailed 39-31 at 16:59. But from there, VCU pushed it out to 44-31, then extended the lead to 18 (57-39) with 9:01 remaining.
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