Patriots can't slay the Dragons

George Mason fell to Drexel yesterday in Philadelphia 73-60 in a loss that now puts them in 2nd place in the CAA. The Patriots have not looked like they have in their recent winning ways during these last two games. It's becoming evident that when Cam Long and Andre Cornelius start off slow so does the rest of the squad. Ryan Pearson and Mike Morrison's inside game is important but during Mason's 7-game winning streak we saw the guards of this team open things up early by knocking down outside shots and lately that just hasn't been happening. Cornelius is still shooting over 40% on the season from three-point land but lately he has not been shooting consistent and most have been ill advised. Now that he has been taking over the point guard ball handling duties his success on offense is becoming more and more important. As for the forwards, it continues to be a game by game mystery who else will contribute outside of Ryan Pearson. Yesterday we saw a lot of Kevin Foster early as he scored 5 points and collected 5 rebounds in the first half but Louis Birdsong went scoreless. Johnny Williams, who I had enjoyed seeing more of recently, played 1 minute. In the first half Larranaga went with a line-up of Long, Cornelius, Pearson, Birdsong, and Foster which we have not seen yet this season. I don't know if Larranaga was trying to shake things up with the change but I don't really understand the move. I'd rather see more guards out there then a line-up like that. The team just seems to flow better on offense and defense with a three or four guard line-up. During this line-up experiment the Dragons went on a 21-2 run in the first half.

-Free-throw shooting could have really helped the Patriots late in this one, but we should be used to this, right?

-What's with the three-point attempts by Ryan Pearson? I know he can hit the occasional one but his shot selection was just dumb in this one.

-Commenter Mooky points out how Mason needs to buckle down on the perimeter defense, I couldn't agree more, the Dragons got way too many open looks in the 2nd half when the Patriots were trying to claw back.

-The Drexel bench outscored the Mason bench 34-5

NCAA Basketball Stats