The George Mason University mens’ basketball team was back at EagleBank Arena on Wednesday after a full week of rest, but after manhandling George Washington 90-67 last Tuesday, the next opponent would be much tougher. Anthony Grant’s No. 16-ranked Dayton Flyers came to town as the class of the Atlantic 10, led by Conference Player of the Year favorite DaRon Holmes II, and the Patriots (17-8) found themselves as 3.5-point underdogs.

            Holmes immediately asserted himself with the game’s first basket, but Mason answered with an Amari Kelly layup at the other end. The teams traded scores a few times before Kelly gave the Patriots their first lead at 9-7, and Mason’s rugged defense was able to force a couple of shot clock violations early in the going. Leading scorer Keyshawn Hall’s three put the home team ahead 17-13, but a six-minute scoring drought ensued, and the Patriots’ next points didn’t occur until they’d fallen behind by five. Dayton went up by as much as eight as Holmes was dominant on both ends, but GMU stayed within striking distance, going into the half trailing 27-33.

            The Flyers scored the first five points of the second half to take a double-digit advantage, but then the momentum swung, and after being down 42-34, Mason suddenly found itself on the run. Several trips to the free throw line and a couple big Baraka Okojie buckets tied the game before Amari Kelly put the Patriots ahead, and the more the points piled up, the louder the Fairfax crowd got. It was a 19-0 burst before Dayton finally got back on the board, but then just as suddenly as Mason had gained the edge, the Flyers got hot again and scored eleven straight to tie the game at 53. With less than eight minutes to go, only one thing was certain: this one was going to come right down to the wire.

            The teams traded a series of buckets before Ronald Polite hit a massive three to give Mason a 64-60 lead, and they remained ahead by four after Okojie sank two free throws with under three minutes to play. Dayton repeatedly crawled back to within a possession, but GMU stayed in control until the Flyers had to resort to intentionally fouling, and the home team executed at the line to put away the 71-67 win as the raucous fans stormed the court.

Okojie scored all 19 of his points in the second half, while Hall added 17. Polite (13) and Kelly (12) also entered double figures.

“It’s a big-time win for George Mason basketball,” Skinn stated postgame. “It’s one of those wins where you start believing, and when you start believing, good things happen.”

            Indeed it was. In fact, it’s the first home win over a ranked opponent in school history, which may sound hard to believe, but considering that the Atlantic 10 (and before that, the CAA) doesn’t often feature such teams and that most of Mason’s games against elite non-conference opponents are on the road, those opportunities are few and far between. You have to take them when you can get them, and on Wednesday, the Patriots did just that.