Coming into the matchup with Duquesne, George Mason had a lot on the line. They were just one game back of VCU for the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship, along with having some at-large hopes if they didn’t lose until the postseason. However, on Senior Day, the Dukes had other plans, starting and finishing off strong to get an 85-68 victory over the Patriots.
Here are some takeaways from the win.
1. Tre Dinkins saving his best for potentially last
Two players were honored for the Dukes in Jahsean Corbett and Dinkins. Due to the new JUCO rule, Dinkins, who leads the team in scoring, could have another year. He’s reportedly undecided on what he wants to do but he knew he wanted to pop George Mason’s bubble, scoring a game-high 20 points, making 6/9 from three-point range. His two threes in 20 seconds ballooned the lead to 16 in the second half and closed the door on the Patriots.
THIS DINKINS SEQUENCE 🤯 pic.twitter.com/cbrkZeBw8F
— Duquesne Basketball (@DuqMBB) March 1, 2025
2. More good bench play
While Dinkins and Cam Crawford (16 points) led the team in scoring, the other three starters for Duquesne had just nine points combined. But the bench stepped up to produce 40 points, including 14 from Maximus Edwards and 13 from big man, David Dixon. Even though the Dukes can struggle at times on offense, they still have plenty of options that can go off in a single game.
3. Effective defensive gameplan
Technically, George Mason shot 53% from the field and had three double-digit scorers. But the 20 turnovers were a season-high in league play, preventing them from sustaining being in the game for all 20 minutes. The Dukes did a particularly good job on leading scorer Jaylen Haynes, forcing six turnovers on him alone. Duquesne has previously struggled against quality bigs, but they came through against the Patriots frontline on Saturday.