Men’s basketball fell 80-65 to second-seeded George Mason (25-7, 15-3 Atlantic 10) in the quarterfinals of the A-10 Championship Friday night.
After leading 42-38 at halftime, the Patriots opened the second half with a 12-0 run and never looked back. The loss ends the Revolutionaries’ championship hopes after their first trip to the quarterfinals since 2017.
“Disappointed in the second half,” Head Coach Chris Caputo said postgame. “But again, a really good opponent and a good fight from our group.”
This game marked the third loss to GW’s Revolutionary Rival this season, after falling to the Patriots 80-77 in double-overtime in January and 53-50 at home in February.
Redshirt junior forward Rafael Castro led the way offensively for the Revs, recording 17 points on 6-12 shooting with four rebounds. Redshirt freshman guard Christian Jones and graduate student guard Gerald Drumgoole each scored in double-figures, with 11 and 10, respectively.
Drumgoole made two 3-pointers in the game’s first five minutes as the teams traded scores. The Revs found success from beyond the arc in the half, knocking down seven of their 11 attempts.
A 3-pointer from graduate student forward Sean Hansen with less than three minutes left in the half gave them a 6-point lead– their largest of the day. With 40 seconds left in the half, Jones knocked down one of his own to go back up six. A Hansen turnover led to a George Mason layup to enter halftime with the Revs leading 42-38.
With the Revs up by six to start the second half, Mason began a 12-0 run spanning 5:16, capped off by senior guard Darius Maddox’s three-pointer. This run gave the Patriots a lead they would not relinquish. GW struggled to score throughout the half, going only 6 of 26 from the field.
“Against a defense that good with the way they’re bringing at that moment,” Caputo said. “If you can get the ball two feet from the rim, you gotta be able to finish those plays.”
George Mason’s defense continued to suffocate the Revs, who, at the 6:49 mark, scored only their seventh point of the half. A-10 Defensive Player of the Year senior guard Jared Billups started the second half and proved critical on both ends of the floor, shutting down Jones and scoring 18 points on 6-6 shooting from the field.
“Starting Billups in the second half, they came out with just an edge and a force defensively, athletically,” Caputo said.
The Patriots outscored the Revs 42-23 in the second half, holding GW to only 6-26 from the field. Billups’ defensive work, along with senior forward Jalen Haynes’, worked in tandem to stifle both the Revs’ perimeter offense and their offense around the basket.
Despite their playoff ambitions ending to a rival, Caputo, in his third season as head coach, saw the team eclipse 20 wins for the first time since the 2016-17 season and the first time they had won 21 games since the season prior.
While an NCAA Tournament bid is likely off the table for the Revs, Caputo said he hopes his team can qualify for a postseason tournament and continue to build on their strong season. The last time GW played in the National Invitational Tournament, they took home the championship in 2016.
“But if we could get into the NIT or The Crown, I just think again, another step for our program to play in the postseason for the first time since 2017,” Caputo said.
Caputo said that he’s confident in the future of his program because of the “institutional commitment” from GW officials.
“We have president in Ellen Granberg, a Board of Trustees, people in our upper administration, our athletic director who would just understand, here’s the gaps in where we need to be, and we’re trying to fill those gaps,” Caputo said.
