“The defensive effort from start to finish was outstanding,” said Larranaga. “Defense is all about effort. If you’re applying a lot of effort, hopefully that works.”

Getting effort from a squad playing its fourth game in eight days and coming off a deflating trip to Northeastern (Boston) in a 71-46 loss, Thursday night, wasn’t easy.

“It was a pretty draining road trip,” said Larranaga. “We needed a really good shoot-around on Saturday [morning]. I ended up stopping it. We didn’t have the juice we normally do.”

But it was there at the 4 p.m. tip-off as Mason (9-7, 4-1) remained in a first-place tie in the Colonial Athletic Association with William & Mary (12-3, 4-1), Old Dominion (12-5, 4-1), and Northeastern (9-7, 4-1).

The leaders Saturday were left-handed sophomore forwards Mike Morrison (15 points) and Ryan Pearson (13 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists). Both hit 5 of 6 shots from the floor. They also connected on a key late basket.

With the shot clock winding down and Pearson on the perimeter, he threw a flat-footed lob pass to Morrison who caught it and slammed it through the hoop in one motion for a 47-36 lead with 6 minutes, 25 seconds left.

Pearson also played a key role on defense, guarding Fields, a 6-9 forward who had 21 points and 13 rebounds in Mason’s 57-52 win in Wilmington last month. Saturday he had a thoroughly frustrating game, taking just three shots from the floor and committing a game-high 6 turnovers before fouling out with 3:40 left.

“We just gave help,” said Pearson. “We tried to front the low post to keep the ball out of there. If it got in there we swarmed.”

Putting the clamps on point guard Tomko — who hit 1 of 10 shots from the floor and missed all six of his 3-point attempts, many of them rushed — was junior guard Isaiah Tate.

“Tomko’s one of the better guards in the league. Coaches stressed how good he is in transition,” said Tate. “We wanted to make sure we picked him up early, keep pressure on the ball and not let him get in his comfort zone. If I got beat everybody was rotating.”

Mason started the game with 5-10 point guard Andre Cornelius on the 5-11 Tomko. But Larranaga changed up, letting UNCW dictate the match-ups.

“We were having a hard time getting matched back up because we weren’t guarding the same people they were,” said Larranaga. “I told the players, ‘Hey, you’re gonna have to guard the guy who guards you’ … Isaiah was really willing to bust his tail. He gave us a great defensive effort tonight.”

UNCW (6-9, 2-3) took an early 7-2 lead, but after a slow start, Mason rallied, taking a 10-8 lead on a follow shot by Morrison, which triggered a 10-0 run and included a pair of layups by 6-8 freshman Johnny Williams. After that, Mason never trailed.

The Patriots’ lead reached 17 points early in the second half before UNCW rallied behind reserve guard Ahmad Grant (12 points). The Seahawks closed to within five points on three occasions, but could get no closer.

A 7-0 Mason run in the final 5 minutes, sparked by a Tate steal and feed to Pearson for a dunk, put the game out of reach as Mason limited UNCW to one field goal in the final 5:41.

The Seahawks average 70.4 points per game and have scored at least 57 points in every game this year except the two its played against Mason.

“They defend extremely well in this building,” said UNCW coach Benny Moss. “They make it a possession-by-possession game. You gotta value each possession and we had [21] turnovers. You can’t do that and you can’t get out-rebounded by 14. Give them credit. They make it that type of game. When they offensive rebound like that and force those turnovers, good things are gonna happen for them.”

Notes » It was the fifth straight win for Mason over UNCW. When the Patriots beat the Seahawks in December, it was the first time in 25 years that they had won two straight in Wilmington … Mason had its best rebounding game this season, dominating UNCW 38-24 on the boards. The Seahawks entered with an average of 13.9 offensive rebounds per game, but got just five Saturday … Mason will host Georgia State (8-9, 2-3) Wednesday.