George Mason (3-5) are on the road to will take on former CAA rival William & Mary (2-5) at 4 p.m. from Kaplan Arena. This will be W&M’s final Atlantic 10 matchup in their non-conference schedule.
Both teams are coming off a win, Mason won 82-75 against Morgan State and W&M sparked a comeback after being down 20 points to St. Joseph’s to win 87-85.
RELATED: Patriots’ win goes down to the wire against Morgan State
Dating back to the early days of the CAA, Mason and W&M played for over 30 years before Mason joined the A-10 in the 2013-2014 season.
This will mark the 68th matchup of these two schools with Mason leading the series 39-28, however, the series is currently tied in Williamsburg at 16-16.
BREAKING DOWN W&M
William & Mary was picked to finish fourth out of 10 teams in the 2018-19 CAA preseason poll.
Currently, W&M is 2-5 on the year, however, that should not be overlooked as they have played the 59th-most difficult schedule in the nation so far this season according to Kenpom.
The Tribe shot 67.7% from the field in the final 20 minutes of the St. Joseph’s game to erase the 20 point deficit; that is the third comeback under head coach Tony Shaver of 20 or more points.
Some notable players:
- Preseason All-CAA player junior, Justin Pierce, is averaging 19.0 ppg and 10.9 rpg this season and has posted three double-doubles in the last five games. He currently ranks second in the CAA and 24th nationally in double-doubles.
- Junior Nathan Knight is averaging 17.7 ppg this season. He recorded a career-high 32 points against NCAA Tournament team Radford and also 21 points against Saint Joseph’s.
- After starting in the last five games, freshman L.J. Owens (10.6 ppg) ranks third among CAA freshmen in scoring. Additionally, Owens ranks 10th in the CAA in free throw percentage (.842), 13th in 3-point shooting (.400), and 24th overall in scoring.
BREAKING DOWN MASON
After their 82-75 win against Morgan State, Mason will look to continue their winning ways through “The Burg” and when they return home to faceoff against Vermont.
Some notable stats:
- Otis Livingston II lead the way against Morgan State with 22 points going 7-13 from the field, 2-4 from three, a perfect 6-6 from the stripe, and dished out 7 assists.
- Mason went on an 11-4 run during the final two minutes of last game to secure just their third victory of the season.
- Justin Kier scored a solid 14 points, going 4-9 from the field, 2-6 from 3, and a perfect 4-4 on FTs against the Bears.
- Javon Greene scored the second-most points in the last contest with 17 and registered 8 rebounds.
- Gonar Mar needs to find his groove because he has only scored 14 points in the 153 minutes (8 games) he’s played this season. The Patriots definitely need more production from him if they want to stay consistent.
All eyes will be on Jaire Grayer as he was held out of last game as a precautionary measure due to his foot injury from last year. If he misses more time, it will be costly.
Additionally, I said this in the last preview and I’m gonna say it again, the Patriots are currently 0-4 when they record over 15 turnovers in a game and 3-1 when they record under 15.
Mason needs to control the ball if they want to win this game.
The game is set to tip-off at 4:00 ET and is available to watch on Tribe Athletics TV.
My Prediction: A Mason “L”
Prove me wrong.
Tell me what you think will happen in the comments below!
