Mason Snaps a Three-Game Losing Streak with a Big Win over Bonny

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Joseph Szymanski
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By Palmer Johnson

Your George Mason Patriots ended their three-game losing streak by defeating the St. Bonaventure Bonnies to the tune of 69-60. Mason now moves on to 14-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

Curran is now 1-0 against St. Bonaventure with Mason, and I like to think that he will help Mason continue that trend for years to come.

Mason dominated Q1 and Q4 of this game, especially Q4, with the Patriots outscoring St. Bonny 24-10 in the last ten minutes of the game.

Baraka Okojie took the reins of the offense this game, and it was awesome. Okojie drew six fouls, because of course he did. Mika Adams-Woods was his primary defender, and he ended up fouling out of the game, although his last two fouls were playing the foul game at the end. Mason’s freshman PG ended up with 8 points on 1-1 shooting and 6-8 from the line. One field goal attempt and 4 trips to the line is crazy, even if some came from intentional fouls. Okojie also played stout defense on the other end, as you would expect from him.

Woody Newton playing center was a surprisingly good lineup that worked since they were doubling Venning anyway. I guess you might as well have some more versatility out there on the defensive end.

Jared Billups had an awesome, super impactful game. He drew eights fouls, which is just absolutely crazy for him. Billups was instrumental in making sure nobody could get hot from three, which is especially important against Daryl Banks, who went 1-4 from the field. I’m coming to the realization that Billups may be the guard/wing version of Malik Henry, where he might only make one or two baskets all game, but each one is a huge momentum boost.

This play had EagleBank going crazy.

Darius Maddox had a bit of a down game for his standards, but hit a massive three that felt like the game-ender.

Austin Ball had an awesome stretch near the end of the first half. This was by far his most impactful game of the season. Mountain Mamba hit a floater, and then a couple minutes later, back-to-back threes. He ended up with 8 points on 3-5 from the field and 2-4 from three in only seven minutes.

Amari Kelly had a pretty good game, scoring 13 on 5-9 from the field while only fouling three times. Kelly was the primary defender of Chad Venning, but he often got help from a Patriot to make sure he couldn’t do much with the ball in his hands.

Keyshawn Hall had a quiet 13 and 8 on 4-9 shooting. You’d like him to be more efficient, but it’s good enough in a game like this.

The team as a whole defended Chad Venning very well, as he scored 17 on 5-14 from the field and 7-8 from the line. If you add his shots, free throw trips, and turnovers, he ended up getting less than a point per possession. One thing that was odd was that he ended up playing 35 minutes and stayed out of foul trouble. No fouls in 35 minutes is an extreme outlier in comparison to the rest of his season.

It really helped that Mason was often able to keep Venning from getting the ball close to the basket, as he has a tough time scoring if he gets the ball more than a couple steps outside of the paint. This was great game-planning on Skinn’s part.

This was another one of those games where nobody really took the scoring load, it was spread around and everyone took what the defense gave them. If you can win a conference game where your top scorer has 13, that’s awesome.

Mason really needed this win. Next up is Rhode Island, the homecoming game. That should be another win before Mason goes through the gauntlet of St. Joe’s and UMass on the road.

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