Tribe Men’s Basketball Falls at George Mason, 95-62

Nathan Mann Ties Career-High with 15 Points

01/29/05 5:34PM

FAIRFAX, VA - William and Mary freshman guard Nathan Mann (Overland Park, KS) tied a career high with 15 points, but the Tribe could not hold off the George Mason men’s basketball team’s hot shooting, as the Patriots defeated W&M, 95-62, this afternoon at the Patriot Center.

The loss drops the Tribe’s record to 5-13 overall and 1-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while Mason improved to 10-8 (5-4 CAA).

With W&M trailing, 10-6, following a three-pointer by GMU’s Tony Skinn, the Tribe went on a 7-0 run, sparked by a three-pointer and a pair of free throws from freshman guard Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania), to take a 13-10 lead with 14:18 to play in the half. Mason’s Folarin Campbell kept the lead from getting any larger, scoring eight points in just over a minute, to bring the score to 18-18. From there the Tribe offense went cold, and the Patriots closed out a 27-12 run to end the half with a three from Skinn at the buzzer, to lead 45-30 at the break.

After shooting 51.6 percent from the field in the first half, GMU’s offense got even hotter in the second, converting 73.1 percent (19-26) of its shots in the frame, including seven of 11 (.520) from the three-point line. The Patriots led by as many as 36 points in the period, ending the game with a 33-point lead.

Along with Mann’s 15 points, Tribe sophomore forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA) also scored in double figures with 12 points, leading the Green and Gold with six rebounds. Campbell came off the bench to lead the Patriots with 23 points, followed by Skinn with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Lamar Butler had 18 points for George Mason, while Jai Lewis chipped in with 11. For the third time this season the College made over 90 percent of its free throws, shooting 14-15 (.933) from the charity stripe in the game. GMU shot a torrid 61.4 percent from the floor and 52.0 percent from beyond the three-point line in the contest, while outrebounding the Tribe, 36-23.

W&M quickly returns to action with a game on Monday, January 31 at 7:00 PM against Hofstra.


Box Score


Post-Game Quotes from William and Mary Head Coach Tony Shaver
“I think [George Mason] has an outstanding basketball team. This gives us an indication of how far we’ve got to go to catch up in this league, but I’m disappointed in how we responded. We played pretty well in the first 10 minutes of the ball game, came out of the lockerroom playing well, but then they got a couple big baskets and we didn’t respond. We just kind of folded our tent a little bit and that’s disappointing to see. That’s something we’ve worked very, very hard on as a basketball team and some of our better players didn’t respond the right way today.”

“I’ve said it all year long, there’s a very fine margin for error with this basketball team and I think it showed today. We weren’t real good and they were very, very good. We’ll look at the film, I’m not sure if our defense was just that bad or if their shooting was that phenomenal. I feel that in the first half it was just phenomenal shooting.”

“Probably the thing that bothered us the most was their pressure defense. The last three games, we’ve moved the ball very, very well as a basketball team. Today, I don’t think it was a desire not to do that, but their pressure just made it so difficult. We didn’t do a great job moving away from the ball and we didn’t do a great job of screening.”