12 Home Wins and Counting
By Broadside Staff Writer Ryan Dempsey
On Saturday, the men’s basketball team (17-8, 10-5) defeated the Northeastern University Huskies (16-9, 11-4), winning their 12th consecutive home game 64-53.
The game’s opening play started with a steal by senior guard Dre Smith. Senior forward Darryl Monroe scored first for the Patriots. Northeastern battled the Patriots throughout the first half with intense defense causing the Patriots to go through a couple of droughts. With a little less than six minutes left to play in the half, Monroe hit a shot to end a 10-2 Northeastern run.
Mason went on a 6-0 run of their own, including senior guard John Vaughan taking the ball down the court with an easy layup and freshman forward Michael Morrison’s crowd-erupting slam dunk assisted by Smith. During the run, Morrison continued the high-intensity play with a powerful block shot. The first half ended with a 20-17 Husky lead. During the first half, Mason scored 14-of-17 in the paint and kept the game close, trailing only six points.
During the second half, the Patriots came out with continued intensity on both sides of the court. Early in the half, sophomore guard Cam Long hit Mason’s first 3-point shot since the second half in their loss to James Madison University, retaking the lead after a 7-2 run. With Vaughan hitting a 3-pointer, Mason was able to score 11 points in the first four minutes.
Later in the half, Vaughan hit another open shot from beyond the arc, followed by a layup by freshman guard Andre Cornelius, giving the Patriots an 11-3 run in a matter of three minutes, extending the lead to six. The run continued as Morrison was fouled while making a baseline jump shot. Although Morrison missed the 3-point play, the Patriots grabbed the missed free throw and Morrison was fouled again. This time, he converted both free throws which extended Mason’s lead to 10.
After a Northeastern timeout and a surprise engagement of two Green Machine members (Ben Pereyra and Staisy Kibart), the Huskies went on a quick 6-2 run in attempt to cut the lead. Despite the efforts of Northeastern, Mason’s great defensive pressure kept the Huskies from coming back. With 3:22 left in the game and four seconds remaining on the shot clock, Monroe hit a layup, extending Mason’s lead to 12 points, the largest of the night. The game dwindled down with Mason making 9-of-17 from the free-throw line as the Patriots remained in third place of the CAA.
Notable stats in the game include the Patriots scoring 44 percent from the field, but only shooting 58 percent from the line. Vaughan led all scorers with 16, but had help from Monroe’s 10 points. This was Long’s second-ever double-double as he recorded 14 points and 10 rebounds. Vaughan scored only two points in the first half.
Additionally, the Patriots were sent to the line a total of 36 times. Defensively, the Patriots played amazingly, holding Northeastern to just 34 percent shooting, 14 percent from 3-point range, and stealing the ball eight times. The Huskies shot only 27 percent in the first half.
After shooting just 34 percent in the first half, the Patriots made 55 percent of their shots in the last 20 minutes.
“I don’t normally sweat much in a game, but I did today,” said head coach Jim Larranaga. “For our student body, for our alumni, for fans, [and] friends of our George Mason family, this was a big day . . . the place was rocking and I knew our guys would respond to that kind of energy [and] enthusiasm in the arena and we were just playing so darn hard.”
Mason’s 12th home win comes at a crucial time as they closed the gap for the CAA conference lead to one game. Later in the day, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams fell to the Old Dominion University Monarchs 69-65. Both Northeastern and VCU hold an 11-4 conference record, but VCU has the best overall record at 18-8.
Even though Mason is just one game behind Northeastern and VCU, other CAA teams are still contending for the top spot. As of Saturday evening, the Drexel University Dragons trailed closely at 9-5 in the conference and ODU improved to 9-6.
Mason looks to extend their 2009 home record to 13-0 on Wednesday as they take on Drexel. The Patriots will try to snap their five-game road losing streak in Omaha, Neb. for the BracketBuster match against the Creighton University Bluejays next Saturday.
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