By: Andrew Robinson
It was a career night for Josh Oduro who poured in a career high 19 points and 8 rebounds to lead George Mason to a non conference victory over Towson 70-65 this afternoon.
After a slow first half, Oduro came out and scored the Patriots first nine points of the second frame, and went on to score 16 of his 19 points in the latter half of the game.
“I was feeling it tonight, and my teammates encouraged me,” Oduro, a former local standout at Paul VI High School said of his performance.
The Patriots also received a major contribution from junior guard Jamal Hartwell II, who contributed 12 points off the bench on 4-6 shooting from the floor and 3-4 shooting from three point range.
The most important points of the night from Hartwell came with a little over twelve minutes left in the game, when Towson was on an 11-3 run, and had cut the Mason lead to 42-41 shortly before the under 12 media timeout.
Hartwell drilled a three pointer from the right wing, and drew a foul, and would go on to complete the four point play, extending the Patriots lead to 46-41. Hartwell would convert another triple, and a pull up jumper on the next two Mason possessions to make it nine straight points for the junior from Inglewood, California, and the Tigers would never come closer than four points for the remainder of the game.
“Jamal was huge, that four-point play stopped the bleeding,” Head Coach Dave Paulsen said of Hartwell’s performance. “He got us going for sure. And what I liked was he really defended at a high level.”
For Towson, they struggled finding their rhythm offensively with sophomore point guard Jason Gibson missing today’s game due to injury.
The backcourt tandem of Zane Martin and Nicolas Timberlake combined to shoot 6-23 from the floor, while the Tigers as a team, shot 4-14 from three point range.
The Tigers were led by senior Juwan Gray, who contributed 14 points on 5-8 shooting from the field and 1-2 from three point range. Timberlake also chipped in 14 and Martin scored 11 points before leaving the game after suffering a blow to the head midway through the second half.
The Patriots were also able to force 14 Tiger turnovers, and turn those turnovers into 12 points on the other end.
“I think we played pretty well defensively in every way except for, we put them on the foul line way too much,” Paulsen said. “All in all I thought we battled pretty well.”
This was the first game for Towson since November 27th, and only the second for George Mason since November 28th after both teams were paused for almost a month due to Coronavirus protocols.
As both teams prepare for conference play around the corner, getting back into the swing of things is amongst the teams top priorities.
“We have our spurts as you can see in the game. We have stretches where we do really well and there's sometimes where you can see the effects of the layoff and we struggle,” Oduro said. “ Right now we’re just trying to get our legs underneath us, and move on forward.”
For the Patriots, the focus will be on improving everyday before the gauntlet of the A-10 schedule begins.
“Free throws would be good, late game execution would be good,” Paulsen said of things the team will focus on heading into conference play.
The Patriots look ahead to their next game against Norfolk State on December 26, while the Tigers return home to face another MEAC opponent in Coppin State on December 26 as well. The Tigers will have one more non-conference game against Iona on December 29 before beginning CAA play with a matchup against James Madison on January 3.