By: Justin Creech

Fairfax, VA—George Mason’s Mike Morrison ran onto the court frantically; chest bumping Dre Smith and John Vaughan at center court. Redshirt freshmen Kevin Foster, wearing his team warm up suit, ran onto the court pumping his hands in the air as the crowd at Patriot Center screamed in celebration.

     The Patriots earned their second one point victory of the season of Drexel University, this time 49-48, by again fending off a potential last second game winning shot.

“I thought I came here tonight to watch a basketball game, but I ended up watching a wrestling match,” said George Mason Coach Jim Larranaga in the post game press conference as he  bent down to pick up a stat sheet. “I told our team this wasn’t going to be a finesse game. They were going to have to come with mental toughness.”

    Darryl Monroe put back the rebound of a missed Dre Smith shot with 7.5 seconds remaining and Drexel’s Leon Spencer missed a fade away jumper with 1.0 second left after a wild loose ball scramble to secure the win for George Mason.

    The Patriots beat the Dragons 56-55 at Daskalakis Athletic Center on Dec. 6 after Evan Neisler missed a fall-away jumper at the buzzer.

    Monroe’s basket was the 13^th and final lead change of the game with all of the lead changes coming in the second half. Mason never led by more than three points at any point in the game.

    The win kept the Patriots (18-8, 11-5) perfect at home on the season, 13-0, and extended their home record to 27-1 dating back to the last game of the 2006-2007 season.

    “I was just glad to make the shot,” said Monroe of his game winning basket. “Coach [Larranaga] told us to just attack the basket on the last possession.”

    Monroe, who finished with a game high 15 points along with his team high nine rebounds, also made two free throws with 42.2 seconds left to pull the Patriots to within 48-47. Monroe, who came into the game shooting just 57.8 percent from the free throw line for the season, was just 3 of 6 Wednesday night before making his last two.

    “I’ve been working on my free throws,” said Monroe with a slight smile. “But, I was more [satisfied] to make the last shot.”

    The win pulled the Patriots into a second place tie with Northeastern University in the Colonial Athletic Association standings. The Huskies lost at home to Georgia State Wednesday night, 70-68. It is the Huskies third straight loss and fourth in their last five games.

    Mason shot just 34 percent from the field and made just two three-point shots, but committed just nine turnovers while holding Drexel (14-11, 10-6) to 34.8 percent from the field and just seven field goals in the second half.

   “We came out sluggish, but we picked up our intensity as the game went on,” said Mason senior guard John Vaughan. “We knew this was going to be a street fight.”

   Vaughan’s three-pointer 4:22 into the first half were the Patriots only points in the games first 6:50 that saw Drexel build a 14-3 lead.

    Despite the early shooting wows, the Patriots still shot 43 percent from the field in the first half as they used a 13-4 run to tie the game at 24 by halftime. Mason made five of the 10 first half field goals during the run.

  “That was very important because we trailed the entire first half,” said Larranaga. “They led more than we did, so you have to dig deep when the game is low scoring.”