Mason's 6-game streak snapped at Delaware

Although senior Mike Morrison got off to a solid start, he, along with the rest of the squad, were unable to hang with the Blue Hens of Delaware Wednesday night (John Powell).

NEWARK, Del. – Late-game shooting consistency proved the difference-maker in the Delaware Blue Hens’ (10-12, 6-6) win over the George Mason men’s basketball team (18-6, 10-2) Wednesday night. Although the Patriots boasted the only one-loss record in the Colonial Athletic Association coming in to the matchup, the Blue Hens took the first lead of the game with a quick 3-pointer and never gave it back. Delaware took care of their lead to finish with a 65-60 final score.

It was not sloppy play that bit the Patriots – they only accounted for eight of the game’s 29 turnovers – but the outside shooting that could not find the rim. After the first half, only Mason’s starting forwards had any momentum heading into the second half. Bryon Allen and Andre Cornelius went to the locker room without a score and sharpshooting Vertrail Vaughns only tallied two points.

“We had a lot of open looks, but I was disappointed in the first half,” Coach Hewitt said. “We just kind of felt, ‘This next one’s going to go, this next one’s going to go.’”

Other than a 25-point, 8-rebound performance from Player-of-the-Year candidate Ryan Pearson and Sherrod Wright’s 12 points off the bench, the offensively stifled Patriots played behind the 8-ball all night. Their physicality was not finding foul calls and the Blue Hens trapped too many Patriots under the basket.

“It’s February basketball. Things get more physical. Some of the fouls that were called earlier in the season aren’t called now,” Pearson said. “I’ve just got to make those shots.”

The only bright spot in the game was first-half defense against the Blue Hens’ sophomore talent, Devon Saddler. The guard came in averaging 18.9 points per game, but was held scoreless for 18 minutes in the first half. He finished with 13 rebounds while committing seven turnovers to round out his night, letting another guard take his place.

Mason’s generally strong defense at the top of the key – mostly from Cornelius and Vaughns – was broken by Kyle Anderson, a 6-2 freshman who carried Delaware’s perimeter play with an 8-of-11 shooting performance for 21 points.

The home team’s 45.7 percent shooting mark was not too impressive, but combined with a 7-of-14 performance from long range, it was enough to down a green and gold team who went 33.8 percent from the field with a dismal 3-of-18 mark from long.

“They didn’t respond well early. I thought we were driving to the basket, kept getting bumped off,” Hewitt said of the physicality of the game. “Second half, we did a much better job, gave ourselves a chance to make a play.”

The Patriots had opportunities to tie the game throughout the first half. On three made free throws from Wright at the 10-minute mark in the second half, they had cut the Blue Hens’ lead to two.

Missed layups by the big men proved costly, and role players looked for the heroic shot as the game went on. With his team down by six, Pearson’s open 3-point shot with 1:41 to felt similar to the shot he took against FIU: forced, unnecessary, but a possible game-changer. This shot fell to the wayside like the other had two-and-a-half months ago.

“We were running a play and I found an open spot on the floor. I was open. I kind of thought about it in my head a little bit. I didn’t shoot it the way I wanted to,” Pearson said. “It’s one of those shots, you make it, coach is happy, you miss it, he’s upset. You take chances like that.”

Frantic fouling put the Patriots back in the game. A jumper at midrange from Ryan Pearson cut the deficit to four. A free throw by Sadler put the lead back to five quickly. Twenty-four seconds was not enough time to finish the comeback. Coach Hewitt seemed resigned to the poor shooting.

“Some nights, it doesn’t go for you.”

The Patriots will try to re-start their winning streak when they come home to face Old Dominion this Saturday for Homecoming, with a 5 p.m. tip off.

NOTES: Delaware snapped the Patriots’ 6-game win streak … Anderson’s 21 points is a career high … Pearson’s 20-point game was his ninth of the season … Ryan Pearson was assessed a technical foul for an emotional outburst … Sherrod Wright was on the receiving end of a “flagrant one” foul … Mason scored 22 points off turnovers to Delaware’s two.