Basketball: Patriots Beat JMU, 71-59

By Broadside Staff Writer Fox Parker

The George Mason Patriots beat James Madison University, 71-59, in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament at the Richmond Coliseum.

The win moves the Patriots one step closer to winning the CAA Tournament and provides some much needed revenge for the Patriots, who lost to JMU exactly a month ago in Harrisonburg.

After the opening tip, the game quickly became a scrappy slugfest. The Patriots faithful fans added fuel to the fire by loudly jeering the Dukes in this gritty, passionate battle of state rivals.

The first half saw sustained leads for both teams. Both Mason and JMU went on scoring draughts. Mason did most of their scoring in the painted area, choosing to go to senior forward Darryl Monroe and freshman forward Mike Morrison, who combined to score 14 of Mason’s 24 points. The Dukes extended their early lead to 14-7 with a pair of three-pointers in the first half.

Midway through the first half, Mason held JMU scoreless for 7:35 and scored 11 points during that stretch. The Dukes roared back though, scoring seven unanswered points in a little over a minute.

With 20 seconds remaining in the first half freshman guard Andre Cornelius made a layup to put the Patriots up 24-23. However the Dukes would hold the lead going into halftime off of freshman Devon Moore’s last-second flip-shot.

In the second half, the shooting percentages of both teams increased. Neither team allowed the other to run away with the game. The Patriots continued to play well on defense as Morrison had four blocks and junior forward Louis Birdsong had three.

Mason also held JMU’s lead scorer, junior forward Juwann James, to a single point.

GMU and JMU traded the lead a few times in the second half but with 1:46 remaining sophomore guard Cam Long made a 3-pointer pushing the Patriot lead to six at 56-50. When Long made the basket, Mason Nation erupted in screams of jubilation.

The Dukes would not be able to mount a comeback after Long’s shot.

The Patriots will now face the winner of the Northeastern/Towson game on Feb. 8 at 5:30 in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament.