George Mason has lived and died by the play of Sherrod Wright this season. When he was shut out of the second half last night against Drexel, the outcome was inevitable. The Patriots blew a 20 point lead on their home court and for the second year in a row got torched by Drexel's Damion Lee. Lee scored 20 of his 29 points in the second half, while Sherrod Wright disappeared after scoring 13 in the first half. All this after shooting 54% from the field in the first half. They didn't allow a Dragons field goal in the first seven minutes either. However rebounding and a scoring drought was a the big killer for the Patriots in this one. The Dragons dominated the glass and got numerous second chance points on offense. Johnny Williams being out with a concussion certainly didn't help but I doubt him being in the lineup would have done much different as Mason was simply outworked. The offense just couldn't get anything going without Sherrod Wright and if not for Jon Arledge probably wouldn't even have been in the game late.
Mason was a mess in the second half after playing so well in the first. When the game was tied at 52 and three minutes remaining, Mason came out of a full timeout, looked lost, didn't get the ball to Sherrod and ended up having Bryon Allen throw up an ill-advised shot. We just keep seeing the same sort of disarray out there. I don't even know what else to say about it and the constant confusion at this point of the season is just embarrassing. On defense, the break downs always seem to come at the worst times for them. Nothing was working in the second half and Damion Lee was on fire. Paul Hewitt's man defense wasn't working, as usual, and he just was throwing different guys on Lee. Anali Okoloji, who played zero minutes in the last game at Northeastern, was covering him with the game still in reach. A huge mismatch for Lee and we all saw how that one ended.
A couple times this season the Patriots "deep bench" has bailed them out. Not the case last night and suddenly the Patriots don't look so deep. Marko Gujanicic, who had been starting to contribute more consistently was a total non-factor. Also, Vertrail Vaughns stepped out of bounds with 14 seconds remaining, killing any chance for Mason to pull off another heroic shot.
The Patriots are just not a physical team and can be beaten by a more fundamentally sound basketball team on any night. The amount of talent you have on a roster means nothing when you can't do any of the little things right. On top of that, they just can't score either and failed to reach 60 points for the second straight game. Sherrod Wright might be having a great statistical season but he's not exactly powering Mason to the top of CAA standings.
[Photo by Bill Bride] - More photos here
Mason was a mess in the second half after playing so well in the first. When the game was tied at 52 and three minutes remaining, Mason came out of a full timeout, looked lost, didn't get the ball to Sherrod and ended up having Bryon Allen throw up an ill-advised shot. We just keep seeing the same sort of disarray out there. I don't even know what else to say about it and the constant confusion at this point of the season is just embarrassing. On defense, the break downs always seem to come at the worst times for them. Nothing was working in the second half and Damion Lee was on fire. Paul Hewitt's man defense wasn't working, as usual, and he just was throwing different guys on Lee. Anali Okoloji, who played zero minutes in the last game at Northeastern, was covering him with the game still in reach. A huge mismatch for Lee and we all saw how that one ended.
A couple times this season the Patriots "deep bench" has bailed them out. Not the case last night and suddenly the Patriots don't look so deep. Marko Gujanicic, who had been starting to contribute more consistently was a total non-factor. Also, Vertrail Vaughns stepped out of bounds with 14 seconds remaining, killing any chance for Mason to pull off another heroic shot.
The Patriots are just not a physical team and can be beaten by a more fundamentally sound basketball team on any night. The amount of talent you have on a roster means nothing when you can't do any of the little things right. On top of that, they just can't score either and failed to reach 60 points for the second straight game. Sherrod Wright might be having a great statistical season but he's not exactly powering Mason to the top of CAA standings.
[Photo by Bill Bride] - More photos here
George Mason blows 20 point lead in loss to Drexel
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