It’s Super Bowl Sunday, and it’s time for the game everyone has been waiting for all week! Yeah, that’s right George Mason (11-9, 3-4), at St. Bonaventure (6-14, 3-4)! What, what other game were you thinking about today?
This game marks just the 8th all-time meeting between these two schools, and the Patriots lead the series 5-2, and St. Bonaventure defeated these Patriots just one month ago in an 68-57 victory in Fairfax.
Breaking Down St. Bonaventure
This is a game that carries a significant amount of weight for both teams, but especially for George Mason. The Patriots have won three of their last four, but dropped their most recent outing at Saint Louis on Thursday. Having dropped to 3-4 in the standings, the Patriots are now in a three-way tie for 8th place. The advantage of already having played the Bonnies once this season is Mason now knows what they need to do better in order to pull out a win this time.
Players to Watch:
Mckenna Maycock scored a team high 18 points for Bona back in January, and leads the team in scoring, averaging 11.8 points per game. This may not sound like that much, but the Bonnies have four different players who average 9 points or more per game. In fact, all four of the Bonnies’ leading scorers were just around their season average in the last meeting.
Dajah Logan scored 15 points, just above her season average of 9.1 points.
Asianae Johnson scored 13 points, again, just above her season average of 10.0 points.
Deja Francis scored 9 points, just below her season average of 10.2.
If the Patriots can control those four players better and limit their scoring, they are likely to find some better success today.
Breaking Down George Mason
Where Mason ran into a significant amount of difficulty in the first meeting of the season, was they became a very one-dimensional team. Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored 27 of the teams’ 57 total points. No other Patriots was in double-figures. That said, she was in foul trouble most of the game, which linted her ability to facilitate in her usual manner.
The only other real bright spot in the lineup that day was Jacy Bolton scoring 6 points to go along with 11 rebounds. That said, George Mason as a team got out-rebounded 44-41, and only shot the ball 34% from the field. In addition, they left a lot of points out there, as they went just 6-11 from the line, and though they did hit 7 threes, it took 22 attempts to hit that mark.
In contrast, though St. Bonaventure only shot 39% from the field throughout the game, they shot an astounding 67% from the field in the fourth quarter. They also put the game away behind 10-11 shooting from the line, and a perfect 9-9 in the fourth.
By far, however, what stings the most about this loss is the fact that George Mason carried a 45-36 lead heading into the fourth quarter. The Patriots then got outscored 32-12 in the fourth quarter. That is the type of brutal statistic that will have coaches up at night.
Mason knows what they need to do better today. They know what worked and what went wrong 4 weeks ago at EagleBank Arena. It’s time to go and gut out a road victory.
Tipoff from the Riley Center in Olean, NY is 1PM on ESPN+.
My Prediction: Again, I see a close one throughout, and Mason will carry a lead into the fourth, but this time, I think Mason finds a way to put this one away.
