MEN’S BASKETBALL- Rams struggle late defensively in road loss to Patriots

The Rams were outscored 20-4 in a
key stretch of the second half, resulting
in a 63-51 loss to the Patriots Tuesday
at the Patriot Center. A George Mason
University-record 2,061 students attended
the rivalry game.

Will Thomas paced the Patriots
with a game-high 21 points and 15
rebounds.

“Last year, they double-teamed me
every time I touched the ball, and this
year, they just played me one-on-one,”
Thomas said. “Once I saw that, I just had
to go to work. When they did double, I
could throw it back out to our guys for
drives and open threes.”

The game was 25-25 at halftime
with the Rams on pace to give up 50
points. The team had previously won
all five games when allowing 50 points
or less.

“It was a typical VCU first half. They
defended the heck out of us,” George
Mason coach Jim Larranaga said.

Eric Maynor (Raeford, N.C./Westover),
who led the Rams with 18 points
per game, was limited to just one field
goal in the second half.

“I credit all that to John Vaughan. He
took it upon himself there, he wasn’t going
to let him (Maynor) take over there,”

“We knew he (Maynor) is a great player, a very talented player and
can take over games,” Smith said.

Maynor was three for three from beyond the arc in the first half,
but struggled offensively when the Patriots switched to a four-guard
lineup.

“We decided to go with four guards so that we could at least handle
the ball and what we actually ended up doing was playing great
defense,” Larranaga said.

The Rams opened up their largest lead of 6 points after a pair of
Jamal Shuler (Jacksonville, N.C./Jacksonville) free throws with 11:30
remaining in the second half.

A missed layup by Larry Sanders (Fort Pierce, Fla./Port St. Lucie)
and turnovers in transition prevented the Rams from widening the
lead. The Patriots came out of a timeout and finished the game with
30 points in the final 11 minutes to take the lead and put the game
away.

“Our offense was really stagnant. We did a lot of standing and the
ball movement wasn’t good,” VCU coach Anthony Garnt said. “We
weren’t making shots. We struggled offensively, and we allowed that
to carry over to the defensive end.”

Shuler led VCU with 21 points and Joey Rodriguez (Oviedo, Fla./Lake
Howell) added 8 points. Rodriguez, Shuler and Maynor were the only
Rams to score more than 2 points.

The loss snaps VCU’s seven-game winning streak and gives George
Mason the tiebreaker against VCU because the schools only meet once
during the regular season. The Rams’ lead is now one game over the
Patriots in the conference. George Mason maintains an undefeated
record at home this season, now 10-0. The Rams host Towson Saturday
for homecoming in a 7:30 tip-off at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.