George Mason overcame a first-half deficit to defeat the Northeastern University men's basketball team 64-53 Saturday at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.
The loss drops Northeastern to 16-9, 11-4 in the CAA. The Patriots improved to 17-8, 10-5 in the CAA. Matt Janning led the Huskies with 13 points, scoring in double digits for the 14th consecutive game. John Vaughan led the Patriots with 16 points. The first half proved to be a defensive battle between the top two teams in the CAA in scoring defense. The Huskies were just 7-for-26 (26.9 percent) from the field in the first half. Mason barely fared better, going 8-for-23 (34.8 percent) from the floor.
Down 8-6, the Huskies tied the game after Vinny Lima missed a three, got his own rebound and got the putback layup to go in. After a Patriots turnover, Chaisson Allen then snagged the ball and ran down untouched for a monster dunk, putting the Huskies up 10-8.
After a scramble for the ball, led to back-to-back turnovers by both teams, Matt Janning grabbed the ball and fed Chris Alvarez for an easy layup at 10:07 to make it 12-8 in favor of Northeastern.
Dre Smith answered with a layup for George Mason, but after two Matt Smith misses, Alvarez grabbed the offensive board and finished with a layup as NU went up 14-10. It was soon 16-10 as Smith was fouled on three-point shot at 7:43, and he made two of three from the charity stripe.
However, Northeastern went into a major scoring drought after Smith's free throws. Mason had a 6-0 run to tie the game at 16-16 on Darryl Monroe's short jumper at 5:56, John Vaughan's running lay-in at 5:10 and Mike Morrison's dunk at 2:30 on a pass from Smith. Janning finally ended Northeastern's seven-minute scoreless streak with a dunk after Allen stripped Smith of the ball with 58 seconds on the clock. The Huskies went back on top 18-16. The half ended with Morrison making one of two free throws for George Mason and Allen making two free throws with two seconds left. Northeastern went into the half up 20-17, the 17 points representing the fewest the Patriots have had in the first half of any game this season.
The second half had more offense in the first six minutes than most of the entire first half. After a pair of Louis Birdsong free throws opened the scoring, Eugene Spates made a layup off a driving inside pass from Janning. Vaughan followed that with an unchallenged layup at 18:46. After a NU miss, Cam Long gave Mason the lead with a long three-pointer at 18:12 making it 24-22.
Northeastern answered as Janning drove to the hoop untouched for layup. However, from there Mason took control with a 15-5 run as the Huskies struggled with missed shots and turnovers. Morrison's free throws at 12:07 gave Mason its largest lead of the game, 39-29.
From there, the Huskies were not able to get into a rhythm. They made just four field goals in the final 9:23 of the game. Meanwhile, Mason shot 52.4 percent in the second half. Both teams got into foul trouble and both teams went to the free throw line in abundance. The Huskies were 13-for-16 from the charity stripe in the second half, the Patriots 20-for-32.
Northeastern will host Georgia State next Wednesday at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m. Next Saturday, the Huskies will play in the ESPNU BracketBusters event at Wright State at 11 a.m. That game will be televised on ESPN2 and streamed online on ESPN360.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs MASON
2/14/09 Noon at Patriot Center, Fairfax, Va.
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VISITORS: Northeastern (16-9, 11-4 CAA)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
24 Spates, Eugene...... f 3-8 0-3 0-0 0 4 4 5 6 0 2 0 0 24
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 1-1 0-0 3-6 2 1 3 4 5 1 3 1 0 21
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-7 0-4 2-2 1 3 4 1 6 1 1 1 3 36
23 Janning, Matt....... g 5-13 1-5 2-2 0 4 4 4 13 2 3 0 0 31
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. g 0-5 0-3 1-2 0 3 3 3 1 2 1 0 0 28
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 3-4 1-1 0-1 2 2 4 4 7 0 1 0 1 20
11 Lima, Vinny......... 1-2 0-1 0-0 2 1 3 1 2 0 1 0 0 9
20 Smith, Matt......... 1-6 1-4 4-5 2 1 3 2 7 0 1 0 2 17
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
32 Adako, Manny........ 0-0 0-0 6-6 0 1 1 2 6 0 0 1 0 12
33 Felix, Ben.......... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 2 3
Totals.............. 16-47 3-21 18-24 10 22 32 26 53 6 13 3 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-26 26.9% 2nd Half: 9-21 42.9% Game: 34.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-9 11.1% 2nd Half: 2-12 16.7% Game: 14.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 13-16 81.3% Game: 75.0% 3
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HOME TEAM: MASON (17-8, 10-5 CAA)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
32 Monroe, Darryl...... f 5-7 0-0 0-0 1 4 5 2 10 1 1 0 1 29
33 Birdsong, Louis..... f 0-4 0-0 4-6 0 1 1 2 4 1 2 1 0 26
01 Smith, Dre.......... g 1-8 0-5 0-0 0 0 0 5 2 2 1 0 1 26
20 Long, Cam........... g 4-6 1-1 5-7 2 8 10 3 14 1 2 0 2 36
23 Vaughan, John....... g 5-7 2-3 4-8 0 3 3 2 16 3 1 0 0 29
02 Cornelius, Andre.... 1-6 0-2 3-4 1 1 2 2 5 1 0 0 2 17
22 Morrison, Michael... 3-3 0-0 3-7 0 1 1 4 9 0 0 1 0 11
24 Pearson, Ryan....... 1-4 0-0 2-4 2 4 6 1 4 2 1 0 2 26
TEAM................ 4 2 6
Totals.............. 20-45 3-11 21-36 10 24 34 21 64 11 8 2 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-23 34.8% 2nd Half: 12-22 54.5% Game: 44.4% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-4 0.0% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 27.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-4 25.0% 2nd Half: 20-32 62.5% Game: 58.3% 8
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Officials: Ray Perone, Donnie Eppley, Haywood Bostic Jr.
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. MASON-None.
Attendance: 9840
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 20 33 - 53
MASON......................... 17 47 - 64
Points in the paint-NU 26,MASON 32. Points off turnovers-NU 13,MASON 15.
2nd chance points-NU 9,MASON 11. Fast break points-NU 11,MASON 4.
Bench points-NU 22,MASON 18. Score tied-5 times. Lead changed-6 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-00:54, MASON 2nd-01:55.
Largest lead-NU by 6 1st-07:43, MASON by 12 2nd-03:22.
