Patriots Outlast Seahawks
January 24, 2012 · 1 Comments
by Cody Norman
Mason 67, UNC-Wilmington 61
There seems to be a pattern forming: the Mason Patriots, the top team in the Colonial Athletic Association, walk away the victors in some ugly, hard-to-watch games.
After putting together three consecutive 40-point performances in the first half, the Patriots struggled to get anything going offensively and went into the locker room with a slim 23-22 advantage. They came out hot in the second half and scored the first nine points of the half, rattling off 19 points in about four minutes.
“We thought we put a pretty good punch on them in the second half,” Paul Hewitt said.
UNC-Wilmington, though, fought back.
The Seahawks quickly closed the gap to one, eventually tying the ball game with more than 10 minutes left in the game and put themselves in prime position to upset the Patriots at the Patriot Center, something no conference opponent has accomplished in more than a year.
Postgame Press Conference – Paul Hewitt
Postgame Press Conference – Bryon Allen & Ryan Pearson
Postgame Press Conference – Buzz Peterson (UNCW head coach)
Then Bryon Allen took over.
“We were struggling from the three,” Allen said. “But that left gaps open for me to penetrate and get to the cup. That’s what I like to do best.”
On a night in which the Patriots were not knocking down jumpshots, finishing the night 1-for-16 from the floor, Allen came up big down the stretch. The sophomore guard continued his season-long progression, scoring 17 points on 7-for-10 shooting.
Bouncing back from a subpar performance against Towson on Saturday, Ryan Pearson scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, recording his eighth double-double.
“We issued him a challenge before the game and said, ‘Listen, if you want to be the player of the year in this league, you can’t have four rebounds,’” Hewitt said. “Ten rebounds, 12 rebounds is what he should get. If he has four rebounds, that means he wasn’t into the game.”
The Patriots will hit the road to take on Hofstra on Wednesday night before returning home to host James Madison on Saturday.
Random News Tracker from the Weekend: Charlotte, who GMU beat by 32 pts 2 months ago, took down #7 Tennessee this weenekd. The 49ers are only 5-6 with some bad losses, but this helps. Wofford is also sitting at 5-6 but it’s possible they’ve played the toughest OOC schedule in the nation. Here’s their losses: Minnesota, Clemson, Georgetown, Air Force (OT), Xavier (OT) and South Carolina. That’s insane. They will probably still end the season with a decent RPI.The CAA is getting some love. The top end of the conference pretty much all went through the OOC schedules well – notably Mason, ODU, VCU, Drexel and JMU. ODU and Drexel both got votes for the TOP 25 this week. ODU is ranked #9 and GMU #11 in the TOP 12 of Mid-Majors (came out this past Friday) on ESPN.com. And Charles Jenkins (Hofstra) might lead the country in scoring this year.