Wright's season-high 23 points leads the Patriots to 74-63 home win against UMBC

Junior guard Sherrod Wright drives on UMBC's Brett Roseboro in Tuesday's 74-63 win. (Photo by John Irwin.)

Sherrod Wright had not had a dunk all season before last night’s game against the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

With the ball on the right wing, Wright saw an open lane to the basket and he took it. As he broke baseline, UMBC forward Brett Roseboro slid over to help and Wright took flight. With authority, the junior guard slammed home a thunderous dunk on the 6’10” Roseboro while drawing the foul.

“[As I was going baseline,] I was thinking about what Erik [Copes] said to me earlier, that I didn’t have any dunks on the season. That was the first thing that was going through my head,” said Wright, who finished the game with a game-high 23 points with six of those points coming on dunks. “I knew once I got that step, I was going to take off on that dunk.”

On the back of Wright’s scoring and 31 points from the bench, the George Mason University Patriots were able to bounce back from the Maryland loss on Dec. 2 with a 74-63 home win against UMBC.

The Patriots opened the game aggressively on both ends of the floor, forcing the Retrievers into 10 turnovers in the first 10 minutes of play. Mason went on a six minute12-0 scoring run that put them up 21-4 with under 10 minutes to play in the half.

During the run, sophomore forward Anali Okoloji helped light the fuse with his intensity, assisting Wright on an open three in the corner, followed by a steal and basket of his own.  

“I thought Anali did a nice job of driving and kicking and that really created some good ball movement for us early,” said Coach Paul Hewitt. “When you start making passes that lead to baskets, then it becomes contagious. That’s what I’m hoping to see is becoming that type of team that really enjoys driving and finding the open man.”

Junior guard Bryon Allen sat to open the game, but sophomore guard Corey Edwards filled in nicely for Mason. In his first start on the season, Edwards provided the Patriots with tight on-ball defense, leading to two steals and only turned the ball over once in his 22 minutes of play.

“I thought he did well,” said Wright on Edwards’ performance at the point. “He pressured the ball extremely well. He got us into our press extremely fast and he got some key steals so his intensity was there so I think he led the team pretty well for his first start.”

The Patriots’ frontcourt turned in strong performances from both junior forward Jonathan Arledge and freshman forward Marko Gujanicic, who accounted for 25 of the Patriots 31 points of the bench. Copes also managed to score in double figures for the first time in his college career with 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks. After he struggled in his first eight games offensively, Arledge was able to break out of his slump, scoring all of his 11 points in the second half.

“I was really happy with [Arledge’s] second half,” said Hewitt. “I showed him the stat sheet after the game between the first half and the second half that ‘You could just see it in your body language. You were ready, verbal and into the game.’

Hewitt mentioned that he told junior guard Vertrail Vaughns that he might see some time at point guard in the upcoming games. The point guard position for the Patriots has been up in the air since last season and Hewitt intends to get a better look at his guards to weigh his options on who can be the floor general for the remainder of the season.

The Patriots return to action Saturday as the University of Northern Iowa Panthers travel to Fairfax for a 6 p.m. tip-off. The game will be broadcasted on NBC Sportsnet and commentary can be found on the radio at 106.7 The Fan.