Senior Cam Long (20) drives in against Georgia State in past Saturday’s game. Photo by: Peter Flint
It is a widely used phrase throughout all of sports, and perhaps one of the most cliché answers, too: The season is played one game at a time. And it never serves a team well to overlook opponents with their mind set on something bigger.
George Mason University basketball has been a hot topic all across the nation over the last several weeks as they have played an incredible brand of basketball on their way to 16 consecutive victories. The Patriots were playing stellar defense and rallying behind their two superstars, senior guard Cam Long and junior forward Ryan Pearson, to thump every opponent since Jan. 8.
“Well actually, we’ve been coming out with a slow start the last couple of games,” said Long, who leads the Patriots with more than 15 points per game this season.
Over the last two weeks, however, Mason has come out of the gates very slowly. Since clinching the No. 1 seed in the CAA, they allowed both Northeastern and Georgia State to hang around and have performed as if there wasn’t a whole lot left to play for.
That mindset continued into the 13 minutes of Mason’s quarterfinal game against Georgia State on Saturday afternoon. They led by just a bucket at halftime before buckling down and playing Mason basketball in the second half, running away with a 20-point victory.
“It all came down to the level of intensity that we were able to reach in the second half,” coach Jim Larranaga said. “The message was that we need to play George Mason basketball, the way we have been playing all season long. And we were able to come with a nice double-digit victory.”
With their intensity back up to par in the second half and a match-up against Virginia Commonwealth looming in the shadows, the Patriots were expected to come out and put on a show in front of the Richmond crowd.
Instead, they came out on Sunday a step slower than their conference rival and were handed a 14-point deficit heading into the break.
As often as they have kicked it into gear in the second half this season, panic from the Green & Gold Nation was not evident in the Coliseum. Mason made a quick push in the opening minutes of the second half, closing the gap to just seven with more than 17 minutes to go in the second half, closing the gap to just seven with more than 17 minutes to go.
But the Rams rode the red-hot hand of forward Jamie Skeen to push the lead back to double digits and reignite a Richmond crowd.
“There was no question that from the beginning of the game VCU’s players were very focused and very sharp,” Larranaga said. “We came out much more focused ourselves in the second half.
But then we started playing in too big of a hurry. We were shooting the ball too quickly and selecting shots way too early. But I think our guys were just a little tentative.”The rest was history for the Patriots as they could never close the gap to less than ten and failed to reach the conference championship as the No. 1 seed.Selection Sunday is right around the corner and the Mason Nation holds onto their seats, hoping their March fate has not changed because of 40 minutes of bad basketball.
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