George Mason Patriots goal of winning their first A-10 regular season championship took a severe hit with a loss to St. Bonaventure on Feb. 17.
Freshman Kyle Lofton poured in a season-high 32 points to lead the St. Bonaventure Bonnies to a dominating 79-58 victory over the George Mason Patriots (15-11) on Sunday afternoon at the Reilly Center. The Patriots entered the game just a half-game behind Atlantic-10 league leaders Davidson (10-2) and VCU (10-2), but they are now a game-and-a-half out of first at 9-4.
St. Bonaventure (11-14, 7-5 A-10) got out of the gates quickly as the Bonnies scored the game’s first 16 points. Lofton was instrumental in this stretch, knocking down three treys and converting a fast-break layup off a steal while also doling out an assist. Trailing 16-0, Mason finally got on the board with 15:47 left in the half on an Otis Livingston II layup. In fact, Livingston scored eight of the subsequent 13 points to get the Patriots to within 18-11 with a little less than 12 and-a-half minutes remaining in the opening half.
But, the Bonnies would once again clamp down on defense. St. Bona, which was excellent on that end all night, held Mason to just14 points the rest of the half and took a 42-25 lead into the locker room. The Bonnies held the Patriots to just nine field goals on 25 shots (36 percent shooting) and forced nine turnovers during the opening 20 minutes.
“We got out 16-0 and we couldn’t have played better defensively, St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt, who became the school’s all-time wins leader with 203. “And we couldn’t have played better offensively. Even though we didn’t play great the entire (first) half, I thought we defended really well. We out-rebounded them, we took care of the basketball.”
While St. Bonaventure was strong on the defensive end, George Mason wasn’t. The Bonnies were able to do whatever they wanted on the offensive end, getting numerous open three-point looks and several dunks. Bona made 56.4% (31-55) of their shots from the floor and hit 11-of-19 (57.9%) beyond the arc. Plus, they outscored Mason 40-22 in paint points.
GMU entered the game ranked 115th in the nation in scoring defense and 112th in defensive rating. They also were 58th in 3-point% and 93rd in three-pointers made.
Lofton led all scorers in the first half with 18 points as he made five of seven shots, including all four of his three-point attempts. The 6-foot-3 combo guard finished the game 10-for-15 from the field and 7-for-8 from beyond the arc. He added seven assists, three rebounds, and two steals. Lofton is believed to be the first St. Bonaventure freshman since Essie Hollis in 1974 to reach the 30-point mark.
Lofton (two points) and Courtney Stockard (four points) combined to score the first six points in the second half to increase the Bonnies lead to 48-25. St. Bona then went scoreless for five-and-a-half minutes, but Lofton righted to ship by going on a personal 7-0 run to put SBU up 54-34 with 11:30 left.
Mason used a 12-3 run to narrow the game to within 10 with 4:44 left. But a trey by freshman Dominick Welch followed by buckets from Stockard and LaDarius Griffin and back-to-back threes by Lofton put the game away for the Bonnies.
Stockard compiled 17 points while Dominick Welch added 10 points for SBU. 6-foot-11 Osun Osunnyi was tremendous the boards and as a rim-protector, as he grabbed 11 rebounds and swatted away five shots.
Meanwhile, the point total tied Mason’s lowest this season as the Patriots shot 38.5% (20-for-52) from the field and 32% from long-distance (8-for-25). Justin Kier led the way for GMU with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting. Jordan Miller and Livingston also reached double-figures as they chipped in with 10 points apiece.
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Mason’s postseason hopes
GMU is kind of right where they were projected as a top-four team in the A-10. Andy Katz of NCAA.com even projected that the Patriots would be on the NCAA tournament bubble prior to the start of the season. But the hope of reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011 is long gone.
Mason’s current standing in the Atlantic-10 is a little bit hazy as the Patriots have lost three of five. Mason is just one-and-a-half games ahead of seventh-place St. Bonaventure with three weeks left. Finishing in the top four of the league is important as those teams will get a double-bye in the conference tournament that is being held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn this year.
Mason does not have an easy slate remaining. The Patriots have five regular season games remaining with three of them at home. Three of their opponents — Duquesne, St. Louis and VCU — have won 17 games and are among the top teams in the conference. That is both good and bad news for GMU.
The bad news is that if the Patriots lose two or more of the remaining games, they are likely to fall down the standings. With that in mind, the matchups against Duquesne and St. Louis are the most important as those two teams are within a game of Mason. GMU is 1-2 versus the remaining five opponents, losing to VCU and Richmond. They did beat George Washington earlier, which is a team that has just seven wins on the campaign.
The good news is that if the Patriots can win at least three of their remaining regular season games, it will give them at least a shot at a postseason tournament berth. GMU needs only one more victory to set a record for the most conference wins since joining the league (2013-14) and mark the first time that they have reached double-digit conference wins since 2012-13.
Mason has never finished above fifth place in the A-10. The last time the Patriots claimed a regular season crown was in 2010-11 while they were in the CAA.
While the Duquesne and St. Louis games are very important (must wins) in order to get a berth in any of the other two postseason tournaments (NIT and CBI), the home contest against VCU on March 5 is paramount. VCU (19-6) is the lone A-10 team currently in the NCAA Tournament, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi.
GMU is ranked 140th in the NCAA’s Net Rankings and 129th in ESPN’s BPI. Which is not good.
Mason is 0-4 in quadrant I games. Three of those losses — VCU, Cincinnati and Baylor — were by double figures. The Patriots did nearly overcome a 20-point halftime deficit and defeat Kansas St. but the comeback came one point short (59-58).
GMU has reached the postseason just four times since 2010. The Patriots, who played in the CBI in 2017, have twice played in that tournament. They also participated in the now-defunct CIT in 2010. The last time Mason received an NIT berth was in 2009.
Prediction: It will be really tough for Mason to earn a postseason berth, particularly if they do not it the 20-victory mark. However, if the Patriots are able to win 19 regular season games and make a run to at least the conference tournament semifinals then they may have a chance to nab a spot in the CBI.