Patriots Remain Unbeaten At Home

George Mason 64, Northeastern 53

Given its road problems the past month, George Mason has embraced every opportunity to play at Patriot Center and stretch a home winning streak that began almost a year ago. But during the unsightly first half of yesterday's 64-53 victory over Northeastern, a result that further muddled the Colonial Athletic Association race, the Patriots performed as if they were suffering another calamity away from Fairfax.

"The place was rocking and I knew our guys would respond to that kind of energy and enthusiasm," Coach Jim Larranaga said of the first capacity crowd of the season, a homecoming turnout of 9,840. "We were just playing so darn hard, we couldn't make a shot. Sometimes when you are working so hard, you can't calm down."

In the first half, the hyper Patriots scored a season-low 17 points and continued their woeful free throw and three-point shooting. They yielded eight offensive rebounds and scored on consecutive possessions just once. The one constant was their defense, which held the Huskies to 20 points.

After intermission the offense caught up to the defense, a tight game turned into a comfortable lead and, despite more free throw trouble, the Patriots (17-8, 10-5) improved to 12-0 at home and 25-1 the past two seasons. With three league games left, they are within range of co-leaders Northeastern (16-9, 11-4) and Virginia Commonwealth (18-8, 11-4), which lost at Old Dominion.

John Vaughan scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half, Cam Long had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and freshman forward Mike Morrison's energetic entry provided a badly needed spark. He had nine points in 11 minutes and, after making a spectacular blocked shot, he saved the ball from going out of bounds with a leaping effort on the sideline.

Matt Janning had 13 points for the Huskies, who shot 34 percent, made just 3 of 21 three-pointers and were without second-leading scorer Manny Adako (illness) in the first half.

After their wretched start, the Patriots shot 54.5 percent and scored 47 points in the second half. Long's three-pointer ended the team's string of 16 consecutive misses over three games. Vaughan then hit two three-pointers and Morrison contributed four points in six seconds during a 15-3 rush that forged a 39-29 lead.

The Patriots needed all of 6 1/2 minutes to double their first-half score.

"We really wanted to come out and still keep our defensive mind-set -- we didn't want to let up," Vaughan said. "On offense, we understood that if we kept rotating the ball and finding the open man, we would get the shots."

George Mason's crisp ball movement resulted in a balanced inside-outside attack and only two turnovers in the second half (eight overall). The Patriots also began to break out of their free throw rut, making 8 of 9 to maintain a comfortable lead. Six consecutive misses, however, allowed the Huskies to pull within seven before George Mason converted 9 of 12 in the final 1 minute 17 seconds.

The Patriots, who have lost five straight on the road, made 21 of 42 free throws the previous two games and started out missing three of four.

"Coach always emphasizes that we've got to play defense," Long said. "Today, that was the only thing we paid attention to. The offense at first really wasn't clicking because we were so focused on our defense mainly. Second half, we just picked it up even more and then we started clicking on offense."