Patriots Defense Stands Strong Over Dukes

By Connect Mason Sports Director Damien Sordelett.

For a rematch of one of the more entertaining contests from earlier in the season, this one turned out to be a sleeper.

After both George Mason and James Madison last fought to a 96-75 Patriot win back in Harrisonburg on Jan. 19, the 9,840 in attendance wanted to see some scoring.

The scoring this time around had to wait, at least for the first 20 minutes.

Folarin Campbell scored 20 points and John Vaughan added 19 as the Patriots (16-6, 8-3 CAA) scored 42 second-half points en route to a 72-46 thrashing of James Madison (10-11, 3-8 CAA) Sat., Feb. 2.

The Patriots came out of the gate strong, opening the game on an 11-2 run. Campbell and Vaughan brought the points early, scoring 23 of the team’s 27 first half points.

The Dukes would not go away easily in the first half, as Juwann James was essentially the James Madison offense. The junior forward scored 11 first half points, including the first ten points for JMU.

“We really were active, we defended well. I thought the whole key to the game was the start of the second half. We were up nine, but it wasn’t a comfortable nine,” George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “Neither team had established themselves offensively. The score was 27-18 and we needed to do a little better job.”

The second half seemed to be an instant replay of the first. The Patriots opened the half on an 11-3 run that spanned the first eight minutes of the half. The Dukes never got the lead within 12 in the second half.

The lead was assisted by another hot shooting night against James Madison. After hitting 65.5 percent in Harrisonburg, the Patriots hit 53.2 percent today, reaching their largest lead at 28 after a Will Thomas layup in traffic made it 61-33 with 5:17 left in the second half.

“Coach [Larranaga] at halftime emphasized defense,” Campbell said. “We started off the game good and then we let Juwann James get three or four dunks. I mean, he was dunking the whole game and we usually don’t let teams dunk on us. We just took it to heart and picked it up on defense.”

For the second straight game, the Patriots were able to control a team on the defensive end. James Madison shot only 29 percent in the first half and just 35 percent for the game.

“Right now, we’re just not shooting the ball from the perimeter real well and when you’re not making perimeter jump shots, it allows a team to kind of pack it in, particularly on a guy like Juwann,” James Madison coach Dean Keener said. “That was a big problem, not making some jump shots early. I thought we had some decent looks.”

Thomas silently had another strong performance with 14 points and five rebounds while battling with James in the interior.

James finished with a double-double, tallying 17 points and 11 rebounds. Abdullai Jalloh was the only other Duke in double figures with 16 points.

George Mason is peeking at the right moment. After a win over CAA leaders VCU, the Patriots stand still one game behind the Rams. Their play has not gone unnoticed.

“This is a very talented team. It’s experienced, it’s deep, people know their roles are defined,” Keener said. “People want to talk about Will Thomas as kind of right there with Maynor as player of the year in the league, I’ll tell you what, there are films and today’s no exception that Campbell is right behind that group. He is playing at a very high level. This is a team that can and has the capability of winning a lot of games in February and March.”

Notes from the Sports Director:

* Today’s win was Coach Larranaga’s 200th at Mason.
* The 9,840 in attendance was the largest in Patriot Center history.
* That number topped the previous total of 9,804 set against Wichita State on Nov. 18, 2006 and Old Dominion on Feb. 3, 2007.