Playing their final regular-season minutes on the Smith Center floor Tuesday, Kevin Larsen and Patricio Garino co-led the Colonials with 17 points each in a dominant 74–52 decision over George Mason on Senior Night.

Fellow senior Joe McDonald led GW with five assists, while graduate student guard Alex Mitola added six points in his first start of the season, en route to the 24–point victory which the veteran described as “bittersweet.”

“It feels good to get a win like this but it’s sad. It’s the last time we’re going to play in front of the crowd here at the Smith Center with these guys,” McDonald said. “We’ve still got work to do, though. I’m glad we got this blowout win.”

All four graduating upperclassmen were honored in a pre-game ceremony and received standing ovations from the Colonial faithful as they headed to the bench late in the second half.

“I just said ‘we made it.’ I felt like we made it,” Larsen said reflecting on his final trip to the pine. “It’s been four long years playing with [Patricio and Joe] especially, and it was just a moment to soak it all in and just be appreciative of what we have accomplished here so far, but also knowing that we’re not done yet.”

Redshirt junior forward Tyler Cavanaugh’s team-high 10 rebounds, plus a sturdy 16 points, was another key in completing the season sweep of GW’s cross-town rival, as well as a 42 percent team shooting clip from the field and 15 total assists on the night.

The young Mason squad, however, did themselves no favors by conceding a staggering 16 turnovers to GW’s five.

“I think that was the game plan,” Garino said. “We knew that they had a lot of turnovers throughout the season. It was just playing solid defense, doubling the post–that helped a lot, definitely being more active when we were playing the one-three-one, that’s what we saw from the last game.”

The win came three days after the Colonials (22-8, 11-6 A-10) took a painful 69–65 loss to VCU at home that snapped a three-game win streak.

As opposed to a mere six-point win at George Mason on Jan. 31, Larsen said the defeat at the hands of the Rams Saturday fueled the significantly more commanding performance.

“We wanted to come out and get the momentum back after we lost against VCU so I think that was the most important part,” the forward said. “We also wanted to go out winning the last game here.”

While the Colonials finished the first frame with a sizable 39–23 halftime lead, their offense was noticeably flat out of the gate.

The team opened the contest shooting just 0-for-7 from the field while the game remained scoreless for nearly three minutes. Cavanaugh provided the spark early, netting GW’s first five points with a three-pointer and two at the line.

Despite keeping the battle on the glass even at 19 rebounds each, the Patriots (10-20, 4-13 A-10) gave the ball away nine times to GW’s two. Lonergan said his team’s one-three-one defense, which he ran for much of the game, made a big difference.

“We haven’t been consistent with our defense this year and that’s cost us most of our losses, but tonight I thought we had energy early, we just couldn’t make open jump shots,” Lonergan said. “I thought the one-three-one helped us. We were making them take tough shots and we created a lot of turnovers and that was kind of the goal.”

Strong passing also jumpstarted a first-half GW offense that racked up ten assists, with four from McDonald who fed a pair of fastbreak slams by Garino and Watanabe, and went on to finish shooting 42.4 percent from the field.

Larsen and Garino led the frame with 13 points each, and both a contributed a deep-ball to the Colonials’ 5-of-11 clip from three-point range as the Colonials.

George Mason freshman guard Jaire Grayer led his team with seven points, but the Patriots shot only 35.7 from the field after sharp-shooting junior guard Marquise Moore left the game with an injury, helping GW capture a 16-point edge at the half.

Back-to-back three-pointers from Grayer to open the second half cut the Colonials’ lead to 43–32, but that’s the closest the Patriots would ever get to a comeback. GW fired right back with a 24–7 run sparked by back-to-back three-pointers from Mitola.

While George Mason would ultimately outrebound their opponent 40–36 on the night, GW never looked back after regaining a double-digit lead.

A perfect 10-for-10 clip from the free throw line on the night plus a 34.5 percent George Mason second-half shooting clip allowed the Colonials to remain confident all night and come away with the bounceback W.

GW is back in action Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when the team travels to Davidson to compete in its final game of the regular season.

“I told them I want it to be Senior Month and not Senior Night. This is the time of year you’ve got to rely on those guys,” Lonergan said. “We have four of them, four of the most experienced guys in the country. It’s time for them to really stay focused on both ends of the court and hopefully our experience will pay off as we enter the Davidson game and then go to Brooklyn.”