The first time George Mason played North Carolina Wilmington this season, the Seahawks scored repeatedly by feeding the ball into the post, where 6-foot-10 Vladimir Kuljanin and his low post colleagues could deliver the ball to teammates slicing to the basket. In the rematch, the Patriots stopped the cutters, but couldn’t keep Kuljanin from finding wide-open 3-point shooters.
Sunday in the Colonial Athletic Association semifinal at Richmond Coliseum, George Mason prevented both, holding the Seahawks their worst shooting night of the year (28 percent) in a 53-41 victory in front of 11,200.
The win advanced the Patriots (22-10) back to the CAA championship game for the second consecutive season, where they’ll face this year’s conference Cinderella, William & Mary (17-15), who upset defending conference champion Virginia Commonwealth (24-7) with their third straight last-second victory.
“We knew we could be them,” said Patriots guard Folarin Campbell (team-high 15 points). “They beat us by three at their place and by a buzzer-beater at home. We knew that if we could just go out there and play defense — I thought that we didn’t play good defense the first two games in the second half.”
Trailing, 31-25, at the half, the Seahawks (20-13) missed their five shots after the break. They still finished with more second-half field goals (seven) than the Patriots (four), but George Mason made up for it with 14 points from 21 trips to the free throw line.
“We missed a golden opportunity in the first minutes of the second half,” said Seahawks head coach Benny Moss.
The game bore little resemblance to the teams’ other games this season, with the normally efficient Seahawks struggling from the field and George Mason reserve forward Chris Fleming having as much influence as double-double averaging Will Thomas (six points, 14 rebounds).
Fleming (six points, two rebounds) eclipsed his combined 10 minutes in the first two games in the first half alone, effectively fronting Kuljanin and hitting all three of his field goal attempts.
“Chris Fleming is my new hero,” said Patriots head coach Jim Larranaga.
Meanwhile, Seahawks freshman Chad Tomko, who averaged 17.5 points in the first two contests, was held scoreless, and Daniel Fountain, normally a 43 percent 3-point shooter, fared little better, with nine points on 3 of 10 attempts from behind the arc.
