Patriots Stress Defense, Pride Complies

George Mason 78, Hofstra 56

First and foremost last night, George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga needed to see a much-improved defensive performance. Three days earlier, he watched his usually resolute team yield basket after easy basket and lose for the third time in four games, a rut that had dropped the Patriots into a tie for third place in the Colonial Athletic Association.

On this evening, however, they fully satisfied Larranaga's requirements, though Hofstra's abominable display assisted their cause.

After yielding just three field goals in the first 10 1/2 minutes, George Mason (16-6, 9-3) toyed with the Pride and breezed to a 78-54 victory before 5,067 at Patriot Center, ensuring an 11th consecutive winning season and improving its home record to 11-0.

"We just have not made the commitment to defense, and that is our number one priority," said Larranaga, whose team allowed Old Dominion to shoot 57 percent in a two-point loss Saturday after holding 13 opponents to 39 percent or worse this season. "The message was clear to them and I was very, very happy with the response that we got."

When the lead surpassed 30 with 6 1/2 minutes left, the only unresolved issue was whether the Pride (14-9, 6-6) would finish with more turnovers than field goals. (The final tally was 19 apiece.)

Hofstra, which had a four-game winning streak snapped Saturday with a four-point loss to second-place Virginia Commonwealth, shot 25 percent in the first half and 28.8 percent overall -- the poorest by a George Mason opponent this year.

Hofstra's Charles Jenkins, the league's second-leading scorer, had 14 points but shot 4 of 15, and guard Tony Dennison was 2 of 19.

"The last few games we scored enough points, but it was really our defense we had to focus on," said Patriots senior John Vaughan (16 points, seven rebounds). "Tonight we came out with an attitude that we wanted to improve our defense and get back to the way we were playing before."

Besides the defensive effort, the Patriots also received another big night from freshman forward Ryan Pearson. After scoring a career-high 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting at ODU, he made 5 of 7 and had 16 points as the Patriots stormed to a 10-2 lead and were ahead 39-21 at halftime.

"We felt down on ourselves" about the defense, Pearson said. "We felt like this can't happen and if we want to be successful, we can't allow that."

The Patriots' only blemish was the 23 offensive rebounds by Hofstra, which used second-chance opportunities to stay close in the early going.

The Pride missed 10 of its first 11 shots and later committed turnovers on three consecutive possessions. When the Patriots' Darryl Monroe (10 points) made a layup at the eight-minute mark of the first half, he had as many field goals as the Pride (four).

The Patriots finished the half on a 9-1 run. Cam Long made two free throws, Pearson hit 5 of 6 from the foul line and freshman Andre Cornelius spun for a 10-footer just before the buzzer to stretch the lead to 39-21.

Long began the second half with a basket in transition and a free throw, but the choppy pace and sloppy play prevented the game from getting completely out of hand -- for a few minutes, anyway. An 11-4 run, fueled by Hofstra turnovers that led to layups and free throws, pushed the lead to 25 with 15 minutes left.

Patriots Notes: George Mason was paired with Creighton (17-6) in the BracketBusters event and will play the Bluejays on Feb. 21 in Omaha. TV coverage will be announced Monday.