By: Justin Creech

Fairfax, VA—George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga smiled slightly during the post game press conference Tuesday night as he began to talk about his team’s performance against the Delaware Blue Hens.

                Larranaga expected his team to come out and quickly take over the game after back-to-back road losses to conference leading Northeaster and Virginia Commenwealth. The game did not start the way Larranaga expected.

                “I thought to myself I don’t know this team at all,” said Larranaga of his team falling behind early.

                Larranaga’s post game quote, however, quickly became a reality. Mason turned an early nine point deficit into a two point halftime lead, and used an offensive burst early in the second half to defeat the Blue Hens 78-55 and put themselves into a second place tie in the Colonial Athletic Assocation with the loser of last night’s VCU-Northeastern matchup in Richmond.

                Senior guard Dre Smith and Freshman forward Michael Morrison led the team with 14 points each while Louis Birdsong, Cam Long and reserve guard Isiah Tate also finished in double figures to give the Patriots five players in double figures for the third time this season. It is also the fourth time this season Mason has had two players finish in double figures off the bench.

                Long also grabbed a team high 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. The Patriots also finished with a season 13 steals.

                “It was huge for those guys to play the way they did,” said Smith of the Patriots bench which outscored the Delaware bench 28-5. “We knew they were going to double team Darryl, so Mike [Morrison] scoring opened that up.”

                Morrison scored 10 of his 14 points in the first half for his third double-digit outing of the season.

                “Coach [Larranaga] told the bench players to bring energy,” said Morrison. “The starters were playing well, so I just wanted to keep that going.”

                After failing to score on their first four possessions of the game, the Patriots came out like gangbusters in the second half scoring on six of their first seven possessions of the half.

                Long’s jumper was followed by two free throws from Birdsong and Smith finished a fast break with a three-poiner to push the Patriots’ lead to 44-37. Freshmen guard Andre Cornelius converted a steal from Delaware’s Jim Ledsome into a layup and scored another layup on Mason’s next possession after a steal by freshmen forward Ryan Pearson. Pearson’s free throw on the ensuing Patriots possession pushed the Mason lead to 49-37 3:54 into the second half.

                “The message didn’t change from the first half,” said Larranaga of his teams second half performance. “We had a chance to see [Delaware] in action in the first half. We knew we couldn’t let them make another run.”

                Delaware (9-13, 3-7) scored 23 points in games first nine minutes, but were held to just 32 over the game final 31 minutes. The Blue Hens came in with three of the top 10 scorers in the CAA, but got mostly moderate returns from the trio Tuesday night.

                Jawan Carter (16.6 ppg coming in) was held to 10 points, while Alphonso Dawson (15.7 ppg coming in) was held to just 11. Marc Egerson, who came into Tuesday night averaging 13.9 points per game did finish with 20.

                “I’m pleased with how we played considering we didn’t have John Vaughan,” said Larranaga of his team’s defensive performance. “Dawson scored 11 in the first half, but none in the second and even though Egerson scored 20 points I thought we did a good job of not allowing him to take over the game.”

                Mason trailed 23-15 with 11:20 to go in the first half before using an 11-2 run to take their first lead.

                Birdsong started the run with a three-pointer and Morrison scored layups on the Patriots next two possessions to pull within three. A fastbreak dunk by Tate pulled Mason to within one, and Morrison’s jumper with 7:11 to go in the half gave Mason their first lead of the game at 26-25.

                The teams traded baskets on each of their next two possessions before Tates’ layup with 4:37 left in the first half gave Mason the lead for good.