Well that was fun!
That was by far the best Senior Night that Mason has had in my three years here as a student! The Patriots won in dominant fashion, 89-54, over La Salle on Saturday afternoon.
First and foremost, I wanna tip my hat to this great senior class. Some guys like Mehki McCray have worked their whole career almost exclusively behind the scenes. Other guys like AJ Wilson and Javon Greene have shattered program records left and right. But from the first guy to the last guy on the bench, everyone contributed to this team. And fittingly, because how much Mason was winning by, everyone go to contribute to the game yesterday.
Onto the game! This was a total runaway right from the get-go, as Mason used an early 16-4 run to gain control of the lead at 21-9 midway through the first half. They would never look back after that either. Javon Greene was utterly unconscious from the field in the first half, scoring 11 points, going 4/5 from the field and 3/4 from three.
Javon Greene: 11
La Salle: 9— A10 Talk (@A10Talk) February 27, 2021
Mason shot well over 60% the entirety of the first half, going 18/27 overall from the field in the first half.
George Mason is shooting 74% from the field with 5 minutes left in the half. That's insane.
— Daniel Frank (@n1a2v3y4) February 27, 2021
Mason was simply firing on all cylinders yet against against a La Salle team that just didn’t have any answers for them.
🤩🤩🤩@Li1Mal ➡️ @Jordan_miller11 pic.twitter.com/JHumfDI5on
— Mason Men's Basketball (@MasonMBB) February 27, 2021
As great as a performance that seniors AJ Wilson and Javon Greene had, it was even better to see younger guys like Malik Henry get real minutes in the second half. It also helped that at over the span of about 6 minutes, Mason had a 20-2 run that blew what was a 24 point lead at the half into a WIPE OPEN game.
OH MY 😱#SCTop10 | @malikhenry_35 | #GetPatriotic pic.twitter.com/6f3qRarj3v
— Mason Men's Basketball (@MasonMBB) February 27, 2021
The best highlight of the night was Mehki McCray recording his first career basket on his Senior Night.
The former SID office intern with his first career bucket!
Congrats, @king__kih!!! https://t.co/dHQOn2Ungf
— Mark LaFrance (@GoMasonSID) February 27, 2021
Pretty special night all around.
Looking at the stats, George Mason shot 54% for the game while holding La Salle to just 32%. Mason hit 11 threes, shooting at a 50% clip. AJ Wilson was one of four Patriots in double figures: he led the way with 16 points, 6 rebounds and most importantly, 2 blocks. That puts him just 4 blocks away from tying George Evans’ school record for blocks. Mason will likely need to win at least one game in the A-10 Tournament to give AJ a realistic chance at breaking the record, but stay tuned.
Looking further at the box score, Javon Greene finished his night with 15 points along with 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Jordan Miller chipped in a triple-nickle with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists, and Tyler Kolek also added 15 points. Also of note, freshman Ronald Polite had a career-high 5 assists in what was one of his better offensive performances of his career thus far.
So looking ahead, George Mason will kick off the A-10 Tournament on Thursday down in Richmond. The Patriots will finish either as the 5th, 6th or 7th seed depending on the outcome of the final three games of the regular season on Monday night. Mason also enters the Tournament on a four-game winning streak, and is arguably about as hot as anyone in the conference is right now.
When asked about the upcoming A-10 Tournament, DP commented simply saying, “It’s not about who we’re playing, but how we’re playing.” When asked about the possibility of yet another return trip to Dayton this year, DP said, “If we were to go to Dayton for the Championship game, I’d be pretty darn excited…It’d be a happy trip and you know what, nobody else in the conference, minus Dayton, has played two games at Dayton so it’d be as close to a home court advantage as anyone could have.”
