Patriots Grind Out Key Win

George Mason 49, Drexel 48

George Mason and Drexel were making shots at an abysmal rate last night, so with his team trailing by a point in the final seconds, Patriots forward Darryl Monroe maneuvered his 6-foot-7, 275-pound body into the lane and waited.

When teammate Dre Smith's driving attempt missed -- the last wayward shot during the Patriots' 34 percent evening -- Monroe was in ideal position to convert the rebound with 7.5 seconds left and lift George Mason to a 49-48 victory before 5,579 in Fairfax.

His layup and Leon Spencer's miss at the buzzer preserved a perfect home record for the Patriots (18-8, 11-5) and kept them within one game of first-place Virginia Commonwealth with two league games remaining in a congested Colonial Athletic Association race.

The late-game drama capped an otherwise frightful performance by both teams: 40 fouls, George Mason's 11-of-21 free throw accuracy, Drexel's 34.8 field goal percentage, two of 17 players shooting better than 50 percent.

"I thought I was going to go to a basketball game and ended up going to a wrestling match," Patriots Coach Jim Larranaga said. "We told the team beforehand that this is not exactly going to be a finesse game -- it's going to be a street fight -- and you really need to come with some mental toughness because it's not going to be pretty, it's not going to be shooting 60 percent, lights out, and we're not going to score 100 points."

Monroe (15 points, 9 rebounds, 4 steals) scored four straight in the last 42 seconds as the Patriots overcame a three-point deficit to beat the Dragons (14-11, 10-6) by a point for the second time this season.

On the go-ahead basket, "The guards did a good job sharing the ball and attacking," Monroe said. "I saw the ball go up and I just tried to get the rebound and put it back in."

During a timeout with 29 seconds left, Larranaga's instructions were for the guards "to take the ball to the basket, be aggressive, get fouled, make your shot or get it up on the glass, and then the big guys attack the offensive boards."

The game was a struggle for the Patriots from the start. They needed almost 5 1/2 minutes to score before John Vaughan made a three-pointer. The Dragons scored without much resistance and inflicted the Patriots with their biggest home deficit of the season (11 points).

Freshman forward Mike Morrison (eight points, five rebounds in 19 minutes) helped get the Patriots back into the game. They held the Dragons to two field goals in the final 11 1/2 minutes of the half and forced four turnovers in the last three-plus minutes. Monroe's free throw with 27 seconds left knotted the score at 24.

The lead swung back and forth in the second half, neither team going ahead by more than three. A layup by Evan Neisler (14 points, 11 rebounds) gave the Dragons a 46-43 lead, and after Vaughan made a floater, Scott Rodgers answered with a shot in the lane with a minute left.

Monroe's two free throws cut the deficit to one and Spencer missed the front end of a one-and-one with 35 seconds to go, setting up the tense ending.

"It wasn't real pretty, but at this time of the year, pretty doesn't matter," Larranaga said. "The [victory] is what matters."

· AMERICAN 58, ARMY 36: Derrick Mercer had 17 points in the visiting Eagles' rout of the Black Knights.

It was the seventh straight win for American (18-7, 10-1), which leads the Patriot League. Army (8-17, 4-7) shot a season-low 27.1 percent.

The Eagles have held the Black Knights to their two lowest-scoring games of the season. Army scored 34 points in losing at AU by 24 this month.

· MORGAN ST. 74, HOWARD 69: Reggie Holmes scored 21 points to lead the Bears past the Bison at Burr Gymnasium. Howard (7-19, 5-7 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) shot 60.7 percent in the second half to keep the game close against league-leading Morgan State (17-10, 11-2), which won its seventh in a row. Kyle Riley led the Bison with 18 points and five assists.

· HOLY CROSS 74, NAVY 69: R.J. Evans scored 17 points and had six rebounds as the Crusaders (14-12, 9-2 Patriot) rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to defeat the Midshipmen in Worcester, Mass. Navy (17-9, 6-5) was led by Adam Teague and Chris Harris with 17 points apiece.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.