Andre Cornelius had a season-high 22 points and Ryan Pearson had 19 points and 12 rebounds as the George Mason men’s basketball team beat Hofstra, 87-68, on Wednesday at the Patriot Center.
The win was the eighth straight for the Patriots, which improved to 18-5 overall and 10-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association and remained unbeaten in 11 home games. George Mason, which suffered its worst loss of the season in an 87-74 drubbing at Hofstra (14-9, 8-4) on Jan. 3, held a 45-29 rebounding edge this time around and asserted itself on both ends of the floor from the game’s outset.
As a result, the Patriots have their longest winning streak since also winning eight straight during the 2005-06 season, which ended with their run to the Final Four.
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“We got beat on the boards against them last time, but tonight we were able to control the backboard, and had a great advantage there,” said George Mason coach Jim Larranaga.
Cornelius had 16 of his points in the first half, when he hit four 3-pointers, and the Patriots shot 55 percent (17-for-31) from the floor in taking a 49-34 advantage.
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“I really just played off my teammates,” said Cornelius, who finished six points shy of his career-high. “They were able to find ways to get me open, and I was able to shoot and make it.”
Pearson added 13 of his in the opening half, when George Mason hassled Pride senior guard Charles Jenkins, the CAA’s leading scorer at 23.3 points per game coming into the Wednesday, limiting him to 4-of-12 shooting. Jenkins would finish with 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting, but senior guard Isaiah Tate, the Patriots’ sixth-man and defensive stopper assigned to guard Jenkins off the bench, said after the game that he thought the reigning CAA Player of the Year had to earn every one of his points.
“He’s a great scorer,” said Tate, who had 12 points in 21 minutes. “He can shoot, he can drive, he’s physical. With players like that, you’ve just got to make sure he’s not shooting a great percentage. He still almost got his average, but I think he had a pretty tough night.”
On four occasions in the second half, the Pride cut the lead to 12, only to have George Mason answer with a basket. Then Hofstra cut to lead to 72-61 on a 3-pointer by Jenkins with 7:15 seconds remaining, but the Patriots again responded, this time with a 14-3 run to push the lead to 86-64, their largest of the game, and put the game away on a 3-pointer by Tate with 2:43 remaining.
Senior guard Cam Long added 15 points and sophomore swingman Luke Hancock had nine points and seven assists for the Patriots. Junior guard Mike Moore poured in 18 points for Hofstra, which has dropped its last three after winning eight of its first nine conference games.
“A lot of credit to George Mason, I thought they executed their game plan very well tonight,” said Hofstra’s first-year coach, Mo Cassara. “I thought they did a terrific job on defense not allowing us to get comfortable, and more importantly, they controlled the boards.
“They were able to drive the ball, they were able to shoot the ball, and they made some difficult shots tonight.”
The Patriots will now turn their attention to Saturday’s Homecoming game against Old Dominion, the defending conference champion who defeated George Mason, 69-65, in Norfolk on Jan. 8. The game is expected to draw a near-sellout crowd at the 10,000-seat Patriot Center and could have big implications on conference tournament seeding and perhaps an at-large NCAA berth down the line, but Larranaga said the team’s focus for the next couple days would be to rest after playing their fifth game in 11 days.
“Right now, I think we just need to enjoy tonight’s game and try to recover,” Larranaga said. “We’ve got to be smart about gaining some valuable rest and be ready emotionally, physically and mentally for our game on Saturday.”
Notes: The school announced on Monday that the Patriots will travel to face Northern Iowa on Feb. 19 for an ESPN BracketBuster game that will be televised on ESPN2. … Of George Mason’s 18 victories, 15 have now come by double-digit margins. … The Patriots connected on 10-of-18 3-pointers. … George Mason has held nine of its 11 opponents at home to under 40 percent shooting from the field after limiting the Pride to 39 percent (25-of-64) on Wednesday.
