Fatt Hill scored 18 points, Nick Ellington had 16 with 11 rebounds, and the George Mason men escaped from Penn in an 83-79 victory on Sunday afternoon.
The George Mason University men’s basketball team was back at EagleBank Arena, closing out its non-conference slate against former Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery at his new home of the University of Pennsylvania. The Patriots entered the contest 11-1, but like many of their games this season, it wasn’t as easy as it should have been.
The first half would provide no shortage of offensive firepower. Mason scored the game’s first six points, but Penn fought back to take a 24-22 lead before the Patriots went on a 14-2 run. Penn’s Augustus Gerhart picked up a technical foul late in the period for showboating after a dunk, and the ensuing Kory Mincy free throws were the difference at the break as GMU led 42-40.
Penn led by as much as six during the second half, but Mason used a 16-4 run to take control. The Patriots, who didn’t make a single three-pointer in the opening frame, finally got one from Kory Mincy to go ahead 73-66 at just under eight minutes left. They’d lead by as much as nine before Penn came fighting back within a possession in the final moments, but Fatt Hill hit a clutch bucket to seal the win.
Despite another victory that felt a bit too close for comfort, head coach Tony Skinn was mostly smiles postgame. “We went 1-for-15 from three, they went 11-for-26, and we were 14-for-28 from the free-throw line… most teams lose that game,” he said.
The poor three-point and free throw shooting can be chalked up to shaking off some rust after the holiday break, because both categories have overall been strengths for Mason this season. But the three-point defense has become a major concern, with the Patriots allowing opponents to shoot above 40 percent from deep in December.
In addition to Hill and Ellington, Mincy and Jahari Long each scored in double figures for Mason, with 16 and 12 respectively. Freshman Emmanuel Kanga had 10 rebounds.
Dola Adebayo, who had started all of Mason’s first eleven games, sat out with a foot injury. Brayden O’Connor also continues to recover from a foot injury, and has been seen moving around without his walking boot in recent weeks. Timetables are unknown for either of their returns.
The Patriots dropped to 86th in KenPom after the win, after ranking as high as 59th prior to their trip to Virginia Tech on the first weekend of December. They’ve been trending in the wrong direction, but there’s still plenty of season left to fix their issues.
Mason’s 12-1 record ties them with their 1983-84 team for the best 13-game start in program history. Now, they’ll gear up for Atlantic 10 conference play, beginning on New Year’s Eve at La Salle.
