Defensive Struggles Come Back to Bite George Mason against Richmond

On Sunday, George Mason (12-6, 1-4) faced Richmond (14-4, 4-1) in their fifth A-10 game of the season. 

Similar to the St. Bonaventure game, the first half started great for the Patriots and came out with a strong lead. Things changed again and Mason trailed.  However, Mason’s shots were falling, the Patriots just could not play defense for their life.

The Patriots finished the half with 39 points going 15-25 from the field, 5-10 from three-point range and recorded 7 assists, 9 turnovers, and 13 rebounds. 

After a weak start to the half, the Spiders recouped themselves and went on a 31-18 run to end the half. Richmond finished this half going 18-27 from the floor, 3-8 from behind the arc, and recorded 11 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers.    

After being up by as much as 10 in the first half, Mason lost their lead 6 minutes left in the first half. 

In the second half, George Mason scored 48 points, going 17-34 from the field, 3-12  from three, and recorded 15 rebounds, 7 assists, and 6 turnovers. 

For Richmond, they scored 55 points, going 15-22 from the field, 2-6 from three, 23-26 and recorded 15 rebounds, 6 assists, and 6 turnovers.

GEORGE MASON FALLS AGAIN 97-87 to RICHMOND

Some things from this one:

Javon Greene set a new EagleBank Arena with 39 points scored. 

Javon Greene has 33 points currently, the record by a Mason player at EagleBank Arena is 34 by Sherrod Wright on 2/19/14 and 34 by Jason Miskiri on 2/20/99 😮

— Domenic Allegra (@DomenicAllegra) January 18, 2020

KMN Law Firm Player of the Game: Javon Greene. #GreeneDay #LeftHandAssassin

Record setting day with: 39pts, 4rebs, 4ast, 5st pic.twitter.com/7aTxgsShTj

— By George. (@ByGeorgeGMU) January 19, 2020

Javon Greene's showing today is on the short list of best Mason performances I've ever seen. He's been ridiculous.

— Petey Buckets (@peteybuckets) January 18, 2020

Per @collegebb_ref, Javon Greene is one of just 10 players since 2010-11 to put up a line of 39 pts/5 stl/4 ast/4 reb or better.

That list includes Marcus Smart and Ben Simmons pic.twitter.com/oSY4W3dgjC

— Mark LaFrance (@GoMasonSID) January 18, 2020

Only two players to put on a George Mason jersey have scored more points in a game than Javon Greene (39 points) did today.

Pretty good day for him to say the least. #MasonRecords

— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) January 18, 2020

Greene was most certainly the highlight of the night.

Mason did almost everything right today. Except for playing defense. Mason had great shots, Greene scored 39 points, totaled 87 points, but allowed 97. 

The Patriots defense crumbled again in the second half, allowing too many points and easy posts in the lane. This cannot be a trend for conference play. 

Paulsen seems like he know’s something’s wrong, but can not figure out how to fix it. The ship is going down fast and getting a new captain won’t stop the water from pouring in.

The answer: get a better ship.

That’s all I have to say on this team, again, not much to stay with these kinds of performances in A-10 play.