It was the kind of highlight reel play that leaves fans hungry for more.
On a fast break in the first half against William & Mary on Wednesday night at Patriot Center, George Mason swingman Gabe Norwood caught a pass, raced down the left wing, cut into the lane, easily rose high above his defender, drew contact and softly finger-rolled the ball into the basket.
Athletic finishes above the rim are expected from the senior. But while Norwood finished with a season-high eight points against the Tribe, he also was lured into a season-high five 3-point attempts — making just one and epitomizing his team’s struggle to stick to what they do best, working the ball inside to junior forward Will Thomas.
“We just have to look at ourselves, come out and play every game as hard as we can. We get up for a game against Mississippi State, but for some reason we just didn’t come out and compete the whole 35 seconds of the shot clock,” said Norwood. “We’re playing great defense, it’s just playing through plays all the way through and getting stops. That’s consistency.”
Rebounding was an obvious deficiency against the Tribe, but the Patriots (6-6, 0-2 Colonial Athletic Association) set themselves up for trouble by launching a season-high 23 three-point attempts.
Despite shooting 35 percent or better from 3-point range in four games this season, George Mason has often been inconsistent from behind the arc, hitting less than 29 percent on five occasions.
Meanwhile, junior forward Will Thomas (14.2 ppg, 6.8 rpg), coming off 22- and 19-point performances, went nearly 20 minutes between his first and second field goals against William & Mary.
“When you lose sight of your game-plan, and your big guy who’s been killing people only gets seven shots. … You see how effective [Thomas] is, we need to get him the ball as often as possible,” said Patriots head coach Jim Larranaga.
Norwood isn’t solely to blame and is still adjusting to his role. He started three of the first four games, came off the bench in four, and was back as a starter the last four.
But in a rebuilding season, the Patriots must stay with what works — getting the ball inside to Thomas.
“We shoot the ball 6-for-23 from three, it ain’t going to get it done,” said Larranaga. “We took a couple that were very ill-advised, especially when Will has it going so well inside.”
