Masai Troutman scored 20 points off the bench, Nick Ellington had 7 blocks, and the George Mason The men’s basketball team forced 19 turnovers en route to a 79-57 victory over Jacksonville.
The George Mason Patriots were back home Tuesday night looking to improve to 5-0 for the first time since the 2019-20 season. They were scheduled to take on the Jacksonville University Dolphins in an Atlantic 10/Atlantic Sun showdown, and if there’s anything Mason’s past two games have taught us, it’s that they can’t take any opponent lightly.
Slow starts were a problem last week against Catawba College and Saturday against New Hampshire, with both visitors hanging around well into the second half. This time, however, there would be no such hassle as the Patriots scored the first nine points of the game and never trailed.
Troutman scored 12 in the first half, including a four-point play early on that gave GMU a 13-5 lead. The Patriots led 33-22 at the break, and after giving up the first four points of the second half, they used a 13-3 run to break the game open.
There were a few minor issues – Mason turned the ball over thirteen times and went just 22 of 35 from the free throw line – but overall the Patriots controlled this game from start to finish with a total team effort. Emmanuel Kanga gave GMU a 20-point lead with 8:55 to go, and it grew to 24 in the final minutes before eventually closing at 22.
“This is a great win,” said head coach Tony Skin remarked afterplay. “From the start we showed how good we can be defensively… we showed teeth.”
In addition to Troutman’s big night, Kory Mincy scored 13 points while making 3-for-4 of his 3-pointers and Kanga added nine. There were 10 different players on the board for the Patriots.
Next week, Mason will travel to Daytona Beach to compete in the Sunshine Slam MTE. They play Ohio on Monday and Florida Atlantic or Loyola Marymount on Tuesday.
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