Flyers snap Patriots’ 18-game home winning streak
It had been 23 days since George Mason played in its friendly home gym. After trips to Puerto Rico, New Orleans, the District, and Wilmington, N.C., the Patriots longed for the familiar green and yellow of the Patriot Center, where they had won 18 straight.
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Trailing Dayton by 18 points in the first half Tuesday night, however, Mason appeared as road weary as ever. But then the band played, the fans cheered, and the Patriots remembered what home court edge is all about.
With a spirited second half rally, led by freshman guard Sherrod Wright, Mason got close but never got the lead, falling to the taller and more experienced Flyers, 56-55, before 5,727.
GMU (4-5) had its chances. But with three sophomores in the starting lineup and four freshmen reserves in the rotation, GMU showed its inexperience down the stretch. On six straight possessions in the final 3 minutes, the Patriots produced just 1 point.
Two turnovers by freshman guard Like Hancock (7 points, 4 assists), who played well otherwise, were costly.
“When you’re a freshman, you have so much to learn and there’s so much going through your mind that it’s difficult to just relax and play,” said Mason coach Jim Larranaga. “Tonight he was doing all the things we knew he could do.”
The effervescent play of Wright, who had 17 points and 6 rebounds, both team highs, led the comeback. The 6-4 Wright, from Mount Vernon, N.Y., hit all four of his shots from the floor and all eight from the free-throw line.
“Coach has been telling me if you play hard on the defensive end and rebound, your offense will just come,” said Wright. “My teammates put me in good positions.”
Sophomore center Mike Morrison scored six points as Mason went on a 13-0 run early in the second half to get back in the game. But when possessions became valuable, the Patriots couldn’t make the most of them. Cosmetic three-pointers by Andre Cornelius and Wright in the final 8.4 seconds gave the appearance of a game that was much closer.
The early deficit was too much to overcome. Sophomore reserve Chris Johnson (14 points) led a balanced attack as deep Dayton (6-2) rotated 11 players, including five 6-foot-8 or taller. The Flyers out-rebounded the Pats 35-29.
“Coming into the game, we said, ‘Dayton is undefeated when they out-rebounded their opponent,’” said Larrranaga. “That had to be a major priority for us.”
Dayton took the lead for good midway through the first half as sophomore Luke Fabrizius hit a 3-pointer and Johnson followed with a 3-point play. Late in the half, Dayton went on an 11-0 run as senior guard Marcus Johnson (8 points, 6 rebounds) scored a pair of inside baskets and Fabrizius added another 3-pointer to give the Flyers their biggest lead, 35-17.
“We didn’t anticipate that we’d turn the ball over as many times as we did in the first half,” Larranaga said. “They had 17 points in the first half off our 10 turnovers. That really sealed our fate.”
Notes » Dayton, of the Atlantic-10, went to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year, beating West Virginia and losing to Kansas … GMU sophomores Ryan Pearson and Andre Cornelius, both suspended for a game at George Washington last week, started Tuesday shooting a combined 2 for 15 from the floor. The rest of the Patriots went 16 of 31 (51.6 percent) … Mason veteran F Louis Birdsong (3 points), who has 72 career starts, played just 10 minutes off the bench. He is hitting only 20.8 percent of his shots from the floor, averaging 1.6 points, and has lost his starting job … Dayton’s reserves outscored its starters 32-24 and have out-scored the opposition’s reserves 276-182 this year.
