A year removed from leading the Colonial Athletic Association in 3-point shooting percentage, George Mason’s Andre Cornelius found himself marred in an identity crisis more than halfway through his junior season last month.
The 5-foot-10 guard from Charlotte, N.C. had spent his first two seasons building a reputation as one of the conference’s top outside shooting threats. But his early-season focus on also becoming the tip of the Patriots’ defensive spear had affected his shot, and he knew it
“When he missed a few shots, we weren’t concerned at all,” said George Mason coach Jim Larranaga. “We just told him, ‘Keep shooting’. But what he did was pull a Ray Allen. He started coming in early, shooting for two hours to get his rhythm back, and he just started to focus his attention to ensure that he was a contributor at both ends of the floor.
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“Earlier in the season, it was with the defense, and now it’s on both ends of the floor.”
The extra work has paid off. After hitting 28 of his 88 3-point shots (32 percent) through the Patriots’ first 20 games, Cornelius has responded by connecting on 20 of 35 (57 percent) over the past five games, including a career-high seven in George Mason’s 78-63 win over UNC-Wilmington on Tuesday. He has averaged 16.4 points per contest over that stretch to push his season average to 10.0, and has given an already dangerous offensive team yet another weapon to spread the floor with.
Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Cornelius becomes just the latest Patriot to find his touch as the conference’s top-scoring team hosts rival James Madison (18-8 overall, 8-6 CAA) on Saturday at 5 p.m. in what is expected to be the second consecutive sellout at the Patriot Center for George Mason (20-5, 12-2). Senior Cam Long (15.5), junior Ryan Pearson (14.4) and sophomore Luke Hancock (11.6) also average double-figures, and each has a different way of attacking an opposing defense.
“He was the best 3-point shooter in the league last year, and it seemed like earlier in the season he didn’t want to shoot the ball,” said backcourt-mate Cam Long, another 3-point threat who has connected on 43 percent (43 of 99) of his shots from behind the arc. “So I just let him know, ‘Hey, that’s what you do’.”
The Patriots know that when Cornelius is on, they are perhaps the most dangerous offensive team in a CAA that has an RPI that is second only to the Atlantic 10 among mid-major conferences this season. Because of that, his teammates will continue to look for him on the fastbreak and in the half-court, as demonstrated during the 3-point barrage against UNC-Wilmington.
“My teammates did a good job of finding me on the break and through the offense,” Cornelius said after Tuesday’s game. “All I had to do was knock it down, and that’s what I did.”
On Saturday, the Patriots will look for more of the same from their point guard against a Dukes team that led for much of the second half in their game in Harrisonburg last month before George Mason was able to pull out a 75-73 victory. James Madison is the only team that has come within 13 points of the Patriots during their current 10-game winning streak, something Dukes coach Matt Brady said will give his team reason to believe coming in.
“We’ll be confident,” Brady said in his weekly teleconference with the media on Monday. “I don’t know if we’ll be close or if we’ll win, but my kids will be confident. It’s just a matter of us learning how to win one of these close games.”
Since starting the season 15-3, James Madison has dropped five of its last eight, including three by four points or less. Four of those losses have come against the top four teams in the CAA – Mason, Virginia Commonwealth, Old Dominion and Hofstra. The Dukes are led by senior forward Denzel Bowles, a transfer from Texas A&M who is second in the conference in scoring (18.2) and third in rebounding (9.3).
The Patriots will throw junior forward Mike Morrison at Bowles and likely roll a second defender over at times in attempt to slow the 6’10”, 255-pound senior, who had 21 points and 14 rebounds in the teams’ first contest.
“We feel like we can beat anybody on any given night,” Brady said. “But the fact of the matter is that we’re not a team that has had a lot of consistency in this program since I’ve been here. We’re trying to teach them that they need to learn how to win together.”
