Men's Basketball wins Battle of the Orange Line

Junior Mike Morrison goes up for a jumper during Mason's 60-46 victory over local rival George Washington Wednedsay night in the Patriot Center. (John Powell)

The George Mason Men’s Patriots (5-2) avenged last years’ lopsided defeat by taking down the Colonials of George Washington (2-4), 60-46, in front of the home crowd Wednesday night.

With the Patriots running out to an early 7-0 lead over the Colonials, it looked as if the game dubbed the “Battle of the Orange Line” was not going to be much of a battle at all. GW looked uncomfortable on offense, shooting 0-9 from the field for nearly five minutes to start the game, while Coach Karl Hobbs frantically paced the sidelines looking down the bench for someone to change the game in favor of the Colonials – but nobody seemed willing to step up.

“I thought we played terrific defense,” Hobbs said. “But we struggled making shots.”

Amid their struggles on the court, the Colonials somehow hung around, tying the score at 20 with 4:10 remaining in the first half. While they shot just 33 percent from the field in the opening half, the Patriots had an equally difficult time getting points, keeping the Colonials in the game. The Patriots lead was just two points entering the locker room at half time.

“I thought both teams played very hard, it was very physical early in the game,” Head Coach Jim Larranaga said. “Our defense was good early but we a very hard time against their defense getting easy shots.”

The Colonials poor shooting continued into the second half, but this time the Patriots were able to take full advantage of it, extending their halftime lead with a quick 9-0 run sparked by better ball movement and more inspired play from their starters.

“Our first five, when we come together, it’s a dominant team,” senior guard Cam Long said.

Although they pulled away in the second half, one area of concern for the Patriots was the limited production from the bench. The Colonials’ bench outscored the Patriots’ bench 20-4.

“Today we came out sluggish the whole first half, and it just went downhill because the starters didn’t do what they were supposed to do, and the bench did the same thing,” Long said.

A steal and breakaway dunk from junior forward Mike Morrison capped Mason’s 9-0 scoring run and gave the home crowd of 5,560 a reason to cheer after the team’s sloppy end to the first half. From then on, Morrison and the Patriots ran away with the game.

“We settled on taking a lot of shots off the dribble early,” Larranaga said. “What I told the guys at half time was that I was happy that it happened in the first half, that we have time to recover and start sharing the ball better.”

Sophomore forward Luke Hancock led all scores with 15 points, while also adding eight rebounds. Long and Morrison chipped in with 14 and 12 points respectively. Long’s 14 points gives him a total of 993 during his four years at Mason, leaving him just seven shy of 1,000 points for his collegiate career. Yet, the team’s success is more important to him than the pursuit of his milestone.

“That will be a great thing once it’s accomplished, but other than that I’m just trying to get the win,” Long said.

The win brings the Patriots to 3-0 during their five-game homestand, with the last two games upcoming against UNC Wilmington Dec. 4, the first conference game of the season, and Loyola (Md.) Dec. 8.