A late run seals the 15-point win for Patriots against Georgia State

Despite the win, Head Coach Jim Larranaga could not control the pace of the game, with three video replays and an intentional foul charged to his star forward. (John Powell)

It was the worst start the Patriots have had all season. They did eventually pull out a win, however, with a late run, 66-51 over the Panthers of Georgia State.

Favored in pregame to win by 13.5 points, Mason (12-5, 4-2) came out and lagged in their shooting, down to the Panthers (8-8, 3-3) by a score of 3-6 after eight minutes of play in a slow start for both teams.

It did not get much better from there.

The Patriots barely held onto a halftime lead, 24-21. They owned the thirteenth best field goal percentage in the nation, entering the game at 48.8 percent. Yet, they shot just 35 percent in the first half and just 20 percent from three.

“The game started out very slowly,” senior guard Cam Long said. “Yesterday we came to practice kind of slow. Practice didn’t start off very good. Practice didn’t start off very good at all; the atmosphere, the environment just seemed really dead. Everybody was looking lazy and tired.”

That may be because of their long schedule. Even though they had Thursday off, it was not truly a day off. They had to wake up at 6 a.m. to leave Northeastern University. It turned into a six-hour day very quickly before they even arrived back on campus at noon. The toll took its effect.

Georgia State’s preparation was also a factor.

“Georgia State, I thought, really controlled the tempo,” Head Coach Jim Larranaga said. “They held onto the ball. Often times, the shot clock would be under ten when they took their shot.”

Nobody played well until senior guard Isaiah Tate came into the game. In just 10 minutes, he scored eight points and gathered three rebounds.

“I just came in, got fouled and made a couple of free throws,” said Tate, who finished with 13 points and six rebounds. “They were really pressuring, and when my man pressured me, I saw the whole lane open up. So I just tried to get in there, find people and look for my shot if I was open.”

But the second half was different than the first.

While Georgia State was racking up the personal fouls, matching their total of 10 in the first half before the second half was at its midpoint, the Patriots shot 12-of-21 from the floor and 16-of-18 from the free-throw line.

“If you’re doing better than the other team on defense and rebounding, and getting second-chance buckets, we were in control of the game even though it didn’t seem like it,” Tate said. “But it worked because we were able to keep our lead.”

It was one of their bright points in the game. While their field goal percentage improved, their consistency from the line increased their lead. They were led in shooting by Cam Long, who scored 18 points.

Both teams began racking up fouls in the second half, forcing the game to become more and physical. It became a problem in the referees’ eyes until they called an intentional foul on an elbow under the basket by junior forward Ryan Pearson.

“What we’ve emphasized to our players is, in this league, there are a lot of talented offensive teams,” Larranaga said. “If you don’t play defense, they’re going to score. There are a number of teams that are great rebounding teams.”

So it would seem that the big men under the bucket were forced to play hard. It was clear by watching the game, and it was clearly part of each team’s strategy.

The Panthers were ruined by poor time management. With both coaches arguing to the referees about problems with the clock and the increasing physicality of the game, Georgia State ran out of time-outs with nearly 12 minutes left in the game.

It turned out to be their downfall. While the Panthers controlled the tempo in the first half, their control fell off in the second. They tried to force plays and go after the ball physically instead of letting plays develop on both sides of the court. The team went from controlled to rattled as the half progressed, severely hampering their play and the score.

Turns out the second half was all the Patriots needed to find the win. It certainly was not pretty, but they pulled it out on their improved second-half shooting. Sophomore guard Luke Hancock did his part, scoring nearly all of his nine points in the last few minutes of the game.

Mason stays home for a few days and will prepare to play Drexel (11-4, 3-2) Jan. 19 at 9 p.m. in the Patriot Center. The game will be aired on MASN.