Entering Saturday’s regular-season finale, the George Mason men’s basketball team had lost six of its past eight games. They just beat a top-25 ranked Saint Louis squad 86-57.
To quote Jon Rothstein: Anarchy? Nope, just college basketball. Or perhaps in better terms, just a group that’s suddenly hitting its stride at the exact right time.
It’s extremely difficult to consistently execute for an entire season. Last month, Mason had to find that out the hard way, going from 18-1 to 21-7 as some concerning trends that had plagued Tony Skinn‘s squad for months were finally exposed. But on the Patriots’ Senior Day, it was the team that’s been the class of the Atlantic 10 all year that had to face its rude awakening.
Mason gave up the first five points to the Billikens, and trailed 23-20 after ten minutes. Then, the Patriots used a 15-2 run to establish control, as they dominated on the glass and picked apart Saint Louis’ defense to get to the rim at will. Robbie Avila picked up three fouls in the first half, and his team missed him dearly as GMU went into the break with a 43-34 lead.
Still, this is a Saint Louis team that has erased deficits in the blink of an eye all year long. No one in the packed EagleBank Arena could get too comfortable, and early in the second half, it felt like the game-changing scoring run was coming at any moment. It came… from Mason.
After leading 49-39, the Patriots scored 17 straight and went ahead by as much as 34. Saint Louis couldn’t stop a nosebleed defensively and looked shockingly lost on offense, with careless turnovers and desperate shot attempts galore. By the end of the afternoon, Mason was just having fun out there. Nick Ellington, who had never attempted a three-pointer in his entire college career, threw one up with a few minutes to go and a 28-point lead just because he could. He drained it.
“This was the game we needed,” Skinn remarked postgame. “It’s been a long season, and we’ve had lots of ups and downs that set us up for a bad February. But we’ve found our way the past couple games.”
Skinn mentioned that Ellington, one of his team’s four graduating seniors, had some special motivation in this one. Growing up in St. Louis, he was never recruited by SLU, and the chance to compete in the same conference as them was a big reason why he chose to transfer to Mason from Murray State.
There were plenty of eye-popping stat lines for the Patriots in this one. Jahari Long scored 21 points while dishing out 9 assists. Kory Mincy added 15, his second straight productive outing after a cold spell while he fought through a hand injury. Riley Allenspach, Ellington, and Emmanuel Kanga all had 13, with the latter two also reaching double-digit rebounds.
Masai Troutman scored nine, while Dola Adebayo had a bucket late. Those two and Ellington were Mason’s only seniors who suited up on Saturday, as Fatt Hill remains out with an ankle injury. Long and Brayden O’Connor, who has missed all but 15 minutes of this season, are both expected to apply for medical waivers to play in 2026-27.
For Mason, their best performance all year couldn’t have come at a better time. The Patriots, who finish the regular season at 23-8 (11-7), will be the No. 5 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, and they’ll need the auto-bid to advance to the Big Dance. But even if they are unable to secure it, Saturday’s win should help them secure the consolation prize of a home game in the first round of the NIT.
It’s been a roller coaster of a campaign for George Mason. Just a week and a half ago, the Patriots were falling into a bottomless pit. Now, they’re the team no one in the A-10 wants to play. Sports are funny like that.