After a full week off, the Atlantic 10’s first-place, 15-5 George Mason Patriots returned to the friendly confines of EagleBank Arena on Wednesday night, taking on the Ramblers of Loyola-Chicago. Loyola entered the game 12-7 (3-3 in conference play), having struggled ever since a strong 9-1 start, but Drew Valentine’s Ramblers have given Mason fits since joining the A-10, winning their last three matchups.
That was the case again early on in this one, as GMU scored only two points in the first seven minutes. Loyola wasn’t much better offensively, though, and midway through the first frame it was 6-4 – not a typo – in favor of the visitors. There were only six minutes left in the half by the time the Patriots took their first lead at 11-10, and it was tied at 15 apiece with less than two to go before Justin Begg gave Mason a spark with five straight points. GMU took a 24-17 lead into the intermission, with the two teams combining to shoot a dismal 14-for-46 from the field.
The second half got off to a bit of a faster start, and Mason took its largest lead of 28-19 on a Jalen Haynes floater. Loyola hung around within single digits and got back within 35-32 midway through the period, but minutes later Haynes scored a pair of buckets – the latter of which came directly after stealing an inbounds pass – to put the Patriots ahead 42-34. The Ramblers continued to stay within striking distance, cutting the deficit back to 49-46 with under two minutes remaining and then tying the game on a three-point play inside the final 45 seconds, but neither team was able to score for the remainder of regulation as they headed to overtime knotted up at 49.
Haynes got the Patriots on the board first in the extra frame, but Loyola took a 53-51 lead on a pair of free throws – a glaring weakness for Mason in this game – under the three-minute mark. From that point on, it was the K.D. Johnson experience – he corralled a clutch offensive rebound with the shot clock about to expire and got fouled, making both shots to bring Mason back even, and then he converted a scoop and score after forcing a turnover to give the Patriots the lead. Johnson, who had one point through all of regulation, ended up scoring Mason’s last seven – the remaining three all the foul line – to secure the victory by a final tally of 58-53, improving Tony Skinn’s squad to 16-5 and maintaining sole possesion of the A-10 lead at 7-1.
Skinn had some mixed feelings about the win postgame, mentioning that there were certain things, such as the free throws, that he was not happy about – but as he summed up, “At the end of the day, we found a way.” Regarding Johnson’s dominant burst in overtime, he said “We’ll go as far as K.D. takes us,” mentioning the fifth-year senior’s challenge in transitioning from a high-major program in Auburn to GMU while simultaneously adjusting to a different role as a primary ball-handler.
Haynes scored 14 points to lead all GMU players, while Begg and Jared Billups each added 10 (with Begg doing so in only 10 minutes of playing time). Next up, the Patriots face a pair of road tests at Davidson on Saturday and George Washington next Wednesday before returning home to play Rhode Island – the team that handed them their only loss of conference play thus far – on February 8th.
