George Mason extends its spell over James Madison
After trailing all the way en route to a 71-57 loss at George Mason Saturday, James Madison rookie coach Matt Brady was asked about the rivalry between the schools.
“My first impression of the rivalry?” said Brady. “Guys keep using that word ‘rivalry.’ I don’t know what the rivalry is. We’re 0-10 the last 10 times we played George Mason. Where’s the rivalry? I don’t know.”
It was an admission that the Dukes have a way to go to reach the level of the Colonial Athletic Association elite. Mason’s win Saturday, before a boisterous crowd of 8,665, was accomplished with its signature product – suffocating defense.
In winning its sixth straight game and taking over first place in the CAA, Mason (14-3, 7-0) harassed Madison (12-7, 4-3) into 32 percent shooting from the floor and 23 percent from 3-point range.
“I thought our team did a very good job of executing our plan,” said GMU coach Jim Larranaga. “We defended their threes very well. John Vaughan and Louis Birdsong did a very good job on their perimeter shooters.”
Mason demonstrated its commitment to defense at the beginning of each half. At the start, the Patriots held the Dukes scoreless on their first seven possessions and took a 7-0 lead on two baskets by Birdsong (15 points) and a 3-point play by freshman Ryan Pearson (13 points, 6 rebounds).
At the beginning of the second half, Mason held Madison without a field goal for the first 5 minutes, 52 seconds, swelling a six-point halftime lead to 16. During the 10-0 run, senior guard Dre Smith (6 points) hit an 18-footer and a reverse layup and senior Vaughan (9 points) added a 3-pointer.
“Coach told us to come out with high energy,” said Birdsong. “I felt like we came out and did that, even though our offense wasn’t as good as it could have been.”
In the second half, JMU got solid work from junior guard Pierre Curtis (16 points) and senior forward Juwan James (13 points, 6 rebounds), but never got the deficit inside nine points.
“We were taking some tough shots,” said Curtis. “If they’re open threes, it doesn’t really matter. But we were taking some tough threes, when the shot clock went down.”
One of Mason’s biggest defensive plays came when JMU, making a charge, couldn’t inbound from under its own basket. Mason was awarded the ball on a five-second violation and Smith followed with a 15-foot jumper to put the Patriots back in charge, 55-42, with 7:35 to go.
“That was probably the series of the game,” said Brady. “We were going to try to punch the ball inside and get to the foul line. We recognized they were trying to get a five-second call. George Mason’s good at doing that. That was the key defensive stop.”
JMU’s comeback attempts were thwarted by a GMU defense that guards the perimeter better than any team in the CAA. Coming into the game, the Patriots had allowed opponents to shoot just 30 percent from the arc. GMU improved its percentage Saturday.
“They play three quick, fast guards. They don’t play a traditional small forward,” said Brady. “They do a good job of recognizing who can shoot and take it away from you. I think it comes down to this – fast kids and the coach makes a priority of it.”
Madison was hampered by the loss of freshman point guard Devon Moore. Another standout guard, Abdulai Jalloh (McNamara), a preseason All-CAA second-team choice, has been out since December with a shoulder injury. In addition, top scorer James sat out the final five minutes with a chest ailment.
Mason was buoyed by a balanced attack. Sophomore guard Cameron Long (13 points) hit 5 of 8 shots from the floor and Birdsong was 7 of 9 as the Patriots compensated for a subpar offensive game from junior forward Darryl Monroe (7 points, 11 rebounds).
Another factor was the Patriots’ sixth man.
“Students who chose George Mason, know the students that chose James Madison,” said Larranaga. “There’s always a lot of talk amongst the students. I thought the crowd was absolutely sensational today. We haven’t started school, but they were back in large numbers.”
Rivalry or not, Brady agreed that the crowd took its toll on the Dukes.
“I think this building is great. The support here is fabulous. They have good players. They’re well coached. It’s a hard building to play in,” said Brady. “Hopefully we’ll get a win in the next nine times we play them. I hope we can start calling it a rivalry at some point. But it wasn’t today.”
