Larranaga Picks Up 400th Win Over Blue Hens

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

The loss was still fresh in their mouths. Walking into the building that just a few days prior experienced loss for the first time in over a year, the George Mason Patriots even had to wait until a 9 p.m. start to finally get back into Colonial Athletic Association action.

It was just a matter of taking advantage of two seniors who wanted redemption and could see where the mismatch was the entire game: in the paint.

Will Thomas scored 24 points, Folarin Campbell added 19 and the Patriots used a 32-point advantage in the paint to defeat the Delaware Blue Hens 70-58 Wednesday before 4,667 at the Patriot Center.

George Mason (19-8, 11-5 CAA) placed four players in double figures, with Louis Birdsong and Dre Smith scoring 10 apiece. Thomas added a game-high 14 rebounds and Birdsong added eight.

Delaware (11-15, 8-8 CAA) was paced by Marc Egerson with 15 points. Herb Courtney added 12 points and eight rebounds and Brian Johnson chipped in 11 points.

“We always want to come out with a lot of energy in both halves to start the game. Come out with a lot of energy on both ends to try to take control of the game,” Thomas said. “Once we see where our matchups are and who we can get inside or outside, we take advantage of that.”

After Delaware got off to an early 4-0 lead, the Patriots responded by going inside to the reliable forward. Thomas hit two straight left-handed hook shots over Jim Ledsome, tying the contest before Smith hit a 3-pointer from the right wing in transition that made it 7-4.

That would be the theme of the contest, as Thomas had his way in the paint, out muscling Ledsome, Courtney and whoever the Blue Hens threw his way. Thomas hit 9 of his 10 shots in the second half with an array of hooks and authoritative dunks that the Delaware post players had very few answers for.

“Just trying to run plays to basically get mismatches. We just gave it down to Will,” Campbell said. “They had some smaller guards on me, so I felt that I could post up too. We just tried to get the mismatches and it worked tonight.”

The post-up game worked, as the Patriots scored 52 of their 70 points in the paint. Outside of the duo of Campbell and Thomas, Birdsong added eight of his 10 points in the paint, including what would have been points 11 and 12 on a highlight-reel dunk that hit off the back rim on the opening possession.

“Louis Birdsong I thought was instrumental tonight. His energy, that first play of the game, sends a message to all his teammates, to the crowd,” said George Mason coach Jim Larranaga, who picked up his 400th career victory. “That would have been awesome if he didn’t hit the back rim.”

The Patriots also took advantage of offensive rebounds, gathering 15 and getting 12 points off putbacks, including several during a key 14-2 run in the early stages of the second half.

“You can’t give a team like Mason second chance points and I thought that was a difference in that run. Of those 14 points, 8 of them if not 10 of them, were second chance points,” Delaware coach Monté Ross said. “This game, they were posting up and we didn’t do a good job with our post defense. Also, the second chance points, the offensive rebounds for lay ups, those are the type of things that get your points in the paint numbers up.”

This game was a huge rebound for the Patriots heading into their ESPN BracketBuster showdown with Ohio on Saturday. The rebound can be contributed to the reason why Mason is tied for second in the CAA.

“I asked [the players] to dedicate themselves on Monday and Tuesday of this week to playing better team defense and to try to get back to the kind of defense that is very, very tough to score on consistently. And I thought we did that,” Larranaga said.