Mason Moves to 2-0 in Conference Play

By Palmer Johnson

Your George Mason Patriots have now moved to 13-2 and 2-0 in conference play after convincingly beating the Saint Louis Billikens 79-67.

The score may seem relatively close, but the Billikens went on a run at the end when Mason had the guys out of the shrunken rotation in.

The win was never in question after the 2^nd media timeout in the first half, as shown by the win percentage chart above.

The Patriots have played two probable pillow fight teams, but treated them as such.

A huge plus from this game was that Mason ended with only five turnovers. Saint Louis isn’t good at forcing them, but five is still less than you’d expect from Mason against anyone this season.

Keyshawn Hall continues his campaign for A10 Player of the Year with a 22 and 8 game. Hall went 6-12 from the field, 6-6 from the line, and most importantly, no turnovers.

We got another good Polite game. The senior PG had an awful turnover early but didn’t make any major mistakes after that. He had 19 points on 5-10 from the field and 6-6 from the line along with three assists.

Baraka Okojie made his mark on the defensive end. He was part of a run in the second half that had Mason Nation on their feet when he forced the ballhandler to travel as soon as he caught the inbound right after a Darius Maddox three. And of course, Okojie being Okojie, he drew five fouls.

Amari Kelly took advantage of the weak interior defense of Saint Louis and scored 13 on 4-8 from the field, 1-3 from three, and 4-4 from the line. SLU forward Bradley Ezewiro did a little better than you’d like, but he didn’t dominate.

Mason’s starters shot very well from the line, combining for 21-22. The team overall ended up with 34 free throw attempts, which is a lot. Saint Louis committed 26 fouls compared to Mason’s 13.

Shoutout to Jared Billups and Darius Maddox for chasing Gibson Jimerson around on the perimeter and making sure he couldn’t get much going from deep. You’ll take 2-6 from him.

Next up, VCU on Tuesday, where Mason looks to move to 14-2 and 3-0 in conference play. This will be Mason’s first big test of conference play.