Eagles Catch Their Prey: Mason loses 78-75 to American

November 10, 2018

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On Friday, the George Mason Patriots probably played one of their worst games in the last couple of years against American University.

That’s right. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY.

As opposed to last game where we played well, for the most part, Mason played like absolute trash against American.

In the first half, American out-scored the Patriots 32-31 going 12-28 from the field, 4-10 from behind the arch, and recorded 18 rebounds.

Mason shot 12-30 on FG’s, a miserable 2-8 on 3’s, and recorded 20 rebounds.

While I’m happy that the Patriots took more threes than last game, the quality of those threes were, for the most part, forced.

Turnovers were also a problem for both teams. Each team had 7 after the first 20 minutes.

Mason and American played very sloppy basketball throughout the entire game.

Here’s a clip of just how bad Mason was in the first half:

This is like Space Jam where aliens took Mason’s players powers pic.twitter.com/Rcclwan0ij

— Ryan Kish (@gmuhoops) November 10, 2018

In the second half, the Eagles went 15-31 for FG’s and 3-8 on 3’s, scoring 34 points.

The Patriots went 13-24 for FG’s, 3-8 on 3’s, and 6-12 on FT’s. They also recorded 7 turnovers in the second half.

In OT, the Eagles scored 12 points going 3-7 from the field, while the Patriots only scored 9 going 3-11 on FG’s and recorded 3 FT’s.

MASON LOSES TO AMERICAN 78-75 IN OT.

If y’all have noticed I have started doing “Dom’s Thoughts” during games.

Dom’s Thoughts

Very sloppy basketball from both sides, but especially Mason.

We’re telegraphing so many passes, that needs to change.

It seems if Mason is running the same exact 2-3 plays EVERY single time they get into the Offensive zone.

— By George. (@ByGeorgeGMU) November 10, 2018

That will now be a reoccurring thing on the @GMUGiantKiller twitter, so keep an eye out for those.

Some notable things from this game:

THE BAD

There were way too many turnovers from Mason, 15 to be exact. Something that is uncharacteristic of a Dave Paulsen team.
Something that I saw too many times? Players not following their shots. There were so many times through the game where a Mason player would shoot a three and then turn around and jog back to play defense.
TOO MANY JUMP PASSES, y’all this isn’t high school ball. CUT. IT. OUT.
Jarred Reuter is having trouble moving in the paint. He can defend the big man, until he just dribbles around Reuter, catching him flat-footed, for the easy layup. He should not start next game.
There were too many uncontested layups, seemed like no one from Mason was playing defense sometimes.
Otis Livingston’s ball control was all over the place, sloppy passing and dribbling from him.
DP’s rotation really needs to be adjusted. I don’t understand how you put in certain players, that struggled throughout the game, in the final two minutes of OT. His grace period since he got the job has ended.
American has won a combined 14 games over the last TWO seasons, this loss looks really bad for our chances for an at-large bid.

THE GOOD

Jamal Hartwell II looked great playing only 11 minutes in this game, he definitely needs to be playing more.
AJ Wilson went 5-6 from the field, recording 11 total points, and 4 rebounds. He had a couple great put-back dunks and a great block in OT to keep us up one until we lost.

Here’s the block:

.@Aj12Wilson says NO!!#GetPatriotic

Mason 70, American 69 (3:58 OT) pic.twitter.com/DZwmnv2DoG

— Mason Men’s Basketball (@MasonMBB) November 10, 2018