With one game left prior to the Patriots road trip to Philly, George Mason (11-3, 0-1) will take on St. Bonaventure (9-5, 1-0) after a disappointing loss to VCU on Sunday.
This contest marks the 12th time these two programs have faced off, with the Bonnies holding an 8-3 series lead. The most recent matchup took place in the second round of the A-10 Championship resulting in a 68-57 victory for the Bonnies in NY.
The outlook is not good for the Patriots, the Patriots have lost 7 of the last 8 matchups against the Bonnies. They’ll have to beat the odds again if they want to win today.
The Bona’s have been playing okay all season. They’ve won 7 of their last 8 games, with their only loss in that span coming from Buffalo. Like the Patriots, the Bonnies have only played a couple of decent teams in non-conference, and they don’t have very many standout wins, if any.
Breaking Down St. Bonaventure
The Bonnies hold a 3-2 lead at EagleBank Arena over Mason but are currently 3-3 overall away this season.
Notable Players:
Sophomore Kyle Lofton checks in at the one spot in Bonnies’ scoring with an average of 14.4 points per game. He leads the A-10 in assists per game (6.7 apg), total assists (94), minutes per game (38.5 mpg) and is second in free throw percentage (86.5%). In two games last week, he averaged 24.5 points, 8.0 assists, and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 49 percent from the floor. Lofton might be their downfall.
Osun Osunniyi is next up with some good stats; notably his rebounding ratio. He’s grabbing 8.6 rebounds per game this season and has 62 offensive rebounds and 86 defensive rebounds. When the Bonnies opened up A-10 play against GW, he finished with 20 points going a perfect 8-8 from the field and added 9.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks.
Breaking Down George Mason
During the last game against VCU, Mason showed us that the 11-2 non-conference record they built up was just a façade. Early in the year, I was concerned about the weak schedule portraying a strong Mason team, and I was correct in that assumption.
Mason cannot compete against top-tier A-10 teams, that’s just a fact. While we’re not in the bottom tier, we are still far from being a top-four seed in the A-10 Tournament come March. Last year, in a weak A-10 Conference, Mason won 11 of their 18 games. This year in a strong A-10 conference, I think Mason will be lucky to break even.
No this is not the end of the world, teams get into funks, but my question is whether or not Mason was ever in a funk to begin with. I’ll let you decide that.
However, here are my predictions for some upcoming games.
St. Bona – L
La Salle – W
GW – W
UMass – W
Davidson – L
URI – W
St. Bona – L
This stretch of games will probably be the easier part of their conference schedule. After these come teams like VCU, Richmond, Dayton, and St. Joe’s (They played really well against Dayton if you’re wondering why I included them).
My Prediction: A Mason “L“
