Patriots Lose First Home Game, Second Place in CAA

By Connect Mason Sports Director Damien Sordelett
Photo by Broadside Photography Editor Courtney Erland

Talk about a bad time to lose the first home game of the season.

With second place in the Colonial Athletic Association at stake, the George Mason Patriots could have taken control of their position and prepare for the final few games of the regular season.

Instead, T.J. Carter’s fall-away lay up as time expired lifted the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks (17-10, 10-5 CAA) into second place and past the George Mason Patriots (18-8, 10-5 CAA) 75-73 Saturday before 9,840 at the Patriot Center.

Will Thomas was at the free throw line with six seconds remaining after he was fouled by Vladimir Kuljanin. Thomas hit the first and then missed the second. That allowed Carter enough time to race up the court and hit the game-winner.

“I knew when the ball came off the rim, that I was going to the other end to make a play, especially if it was one-on-one,” said Carter, who scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds. “I just put my head down, tried to attack the rim maybe to get a foul called or make a lay up.”

“Everybody was to be with their man so they wouldn’t have to find them in transition,” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “They rebounded it, got it to T.J. Carter and he just went the length of the court in his right hand, didn’t stop and made a hell of a running one-handed shot.”

As the ball went through the basket, the crowd could sense that the Patriots had fallen for the first time at the Patriot Center this season, a disheartening ending to Homecoming weekend.

Folarin Campbell scored a game-high 24 points, 18 of which came in the first half. Thomas added 19 points and 14 rebounds and John Vaughan chipped in 12.

The one bright spot for the Patriots was their ability to show a full-court press, forcing the Seahawks into 13 turnovers. The Patriots capitalized with 12 first-half fastbreak points, but could not get the same in the second half.

“We were just trying to put pressure on them,” Campbell said. “We were down most of the second half, so we were just trying to put pressure on them and trying to get some turnovers. Just didn’t capitalize on some of them.”

Not only was the loss the first at home for the season, but also dropped Mason into third place in the CAA. Though both Mason and UNC-Wilmington have the same conference records, the Seahawks own the tiebreaker with two wins over the Patriots.

Down 70-67 with just under 90 seconds remaining, Jordan Carter hit his third 3-pointer of the game to tie the contest and send the Patriot Center crowd into a frenzy.

However, the shooting for the Patriots kept the crowd quiet most of the contest. Coming off a game against Towson where the team hit seven consecutive 3-pointers, the team struggled, hitting just 8 of 27 from beyond the arc.

“That was a tough one. We settled for a lot of 3’s. We were making them the other night and didn’t really show the patience that we needed to offensively,” Larranaga said. “They really shot the ball well from 3 in the second half and 50 percent for the game and we were 8-for-27, 4-for-14 in the second half. That’s basically the story.”

The Seahawks hit 10 of 20 from beyond the arc and shot 52.8 percent overall for the contest. Todd Hendley led the way for UNCW with 21 points and Chad Tomko added 18.