By Andrew Robinson
Grant Golden scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Tyler Burton pitched in 17 points and 8 rebounds, and Richmond came to Fairfax and got a 77-57 win over George Mason to move to 3-1 in Atlantic 10 play.
The spiders also got key contributions from Jacob Gilyard and Blake Francis as the dynamic backcourt scored 15 points and 13 points respectively.
The spiders entered today's contest with five players averaging 12 points per game or more and today, were able to have four players score at least 13 points en route to their 20 point victory.
“Those four guys definitely aren’t any pushovers. We definitely tried to make them work to get their averages,” George Mason senior forward AJ Wilson said.
The Spiders play a unique style of offense where they utilize a variation of the Princeton offense to get up a lot of three’s, but also take advantage of backdoor cuts to get easy shots at the basket.
“They bring a lot of challenges, they’ve got guys who are elite shooters, they’ve got just a phenomenal front-court guy in Golden,” George Mason Head Coach Dave Paulsen said. “Their style makes it difficult, so you don’t want to give up a backdoor cut, but then that leaves you vulnerable to guys turning the corner or stopping behind a ball screen.”
For George Mason, turnovers plagued the Patriots all game long, and the Spiders were able to capitalize on Mason’s 19 giveaways to convert them into 29 points on the other end.
“We can’t turn the ball over 19 times and expect to win a game,” Paulsen said.
“They’re good at getting out in the passing lanes, switching out, reaching in, so credit to them.” Paulsen said when asked about Richmond’s ability to force turnovers today.
Despite the turnovers on the offensive end, the Patriots got a positive contribution from senior forward AJ Wilson. The Laurel, MD native scored 16 points on 8-12 shooting from the floor, and also grabbed 6 rebounds to go along with a game high 3 blocks.
This marks the third consecutive game that Wilson was able to score in double figures, and over that stretch, is also shooting an efficient 50% from the floor.
“I thought AJ played well at Dayton, I thought he played well against VCU, obviously he got hurt and missed the last nine minutes, I thought he played well today,” Paulsen said of Wilson’s performance.
“I think he’s starting to get his consistency, and we want him to continue that, and now we need a couple more guys to take those steps.”
Both of these teams will look forward to conference opponents in their next matchup. For the spiders, they’ll open up a new chapter in the rivalry between them and VCU as both teams will be battling for position atop the Atlantic 10 early in the season.
The Rams are coming off a loss to Rhode Island, and will be looking to rebound as they travel 15 minutes up the road to face a Spider team looking for their third straight win. That game will tip off Saturday, January 16 at 1pm.
For the Patriots, they turn their attention to a La Salle team who currently has gotten off to a good start in conference play after being picked to finish 13th out of 14 Atlantic 10 teams.
The focus will be on remaining together, and continuing to play hard as they prepare for a confident Explorers team.
“For us mostly just working on toughness, and trusting each other more. Definitely just being there for each other more so, and keeping each other up from a mental aspect, and just working on our energy ” Wilson said. “And the rest will take care of itself.”
The Patriots game against La Salle will tip off here in Fairfax on Wednesday, January 13 at 7pm.