The glorious memories of George Mason’s success in the Verizon Center last season — a 3-0 record, including two NCAA tournament wins — faded quickly in a lackluster start on Sunday.
The Patriots allowed Bucknell to race to a 13-point halftime lead and only closed the deficit late in a 60-57 defeat in the opening game of the BB&T Classic.
Senior forward Donald Brown led the Bison (3-5) with 16 points and, aside from one airball, was perfect from the field (6-for-6).
“Truthfully, I don’t understand it. We just played yesterday and it was slow-paced game. I guess everybody just came out with fire and was ready to play,” said Brown.
In contrast, George Mason’s leading scorer, sophomore guard John Vaughan, had just six points, going 0-for-7 from three-point range, and junior forward Will Thomas finished with eight points on 4-of-12 shooting.
“We settled for a lot of perimeter shots early which is exactly opposite of what we want to do,” said Patriots coach Jim Larranaga. “But we clearly have to develop another inside guy because Will Thomas can’t just carry the load himself all the time. He’s the only guy we have playing near the basket.”
Junior swingman Folarin Campbell paced the Patriots (3-3) with a game-high 20 points.
