Patriots get tough inside

FAIRFAX — Hofstra’s Nathaniel Lester weaved his way through the George Mason defense and threw down a vicious dunk to cap an 11-2 Pride run with just under six minutes to go in the first half Monday night.

An edict from George Mason men’s basketball head coach Jim Larranaga to his players later and that was the last easy score near the basket for Lester or his Pride teammates.

In the final three minutes the Patriots blocked Lester twice and recorded two steals to even the score by the time the teams headed to the locker rooms.

Though Hofstra held a 12-4 advantage in the paint for the first period, most of those points came early and Mason held on for a 67-63 Colonial Athletic Association win in front of 3,826 in attendance.

“[Larranaga] got on us about help-side defense and keeping them out of the paint,” junior guard Cam Long said. “After that, everybody got in the paint. Once you do it right the first time, you figure out it’s going to work every time.”

Interior defense had been a weak point for the Patriots this year, particularly in recent games with the team’s worst performance coming at Radford Dec. 30 when Mason allowed 40 points from inside the paint to go with 47 rebounds.

But against the Pride (8-7, 1-2), the Patriots blocked seven shots — one shy of the team’s season-best — and followed up a confidence-boosting win over preseason conference favorite Old Dominion Jan. 2 by holding Charles Jenkins to 11 points, well below his league-leading average of 18.6.

“All five guys guard Charles Jenkins,” Larranaga said. “He’s an NBA-type player and it takes the whole team to defend him.”

Though Jenkins was held in check, freshmen Chaz Williams (20) and Halil Kanacevic (16) recorded career-highs in an effort to offset the lack of scoring from the junior.

Larranaga has long preached an offense-from-defense strategy while leading the Patriots and it was no more apparent in his club this year than against the Pride. Mason scored 17 points off 18 Hofstra turnovers including a defensive stretch in the first half that netted three blocks (two on Lester attempts) and two steals.

Patriots sophomore forward Mike Morrison ended that run with a deflection on an inbounds pass that was picked up by freshman guard Luke Hancock who found Long with a behind-the-back bounce pass for a half-ending dunk that roused the home crowd.

“You don’t get many of those,” Larranaga said of the play. “If you’re constantly taking the ball out of bounds, you’ll get no fast breaks. We’re not able to do that, at least, not at this point.

“If we get stops — rebounds, steals — a lot of those end up being fast breaks,” the coach added.

Rebounding is still a point of emphasis by Larranaga, though, as the Patriots (8-6, 3-0 CAA) were out-done on the boards once again, this time by a 41-30 margin.

“It hurts,” the coach said, “and we were actually able to do a better job against a bigger Old Dominion team than we were against a [scrappier] Hofstra team. It’s something we have addressed every day in practice and will continue. Hopefully, before long, it will become a strength, but right now it needs improvement.”

Four different Mason players reached double figures in scoring, led by sophomore Ryan Pearson’s 17. Andre Cornelius was 3 of 4 from behind the 3-point line on his way to 13 points and Luke Hancock added 11.

Long, a Freedom High School grad, scored the last of his 12 points with two free throws that put the Patriots up for good. He also added four assists and had three of the team’s 12 steals.

Mason heads to Northeastern (7-7, 2-1) Thursday to face a Huskies team that ended Virginia Commonwealth’s 11-game home winning streak Tuesday with a 62-57 victory at the Siegel Center in Richmond. Last year in Boston, the Patriots fell 58-57 after senior John Vaughan left the game in the final two minutes with a concussion.

Staff writer Joe Conroy may be reached at 703-878-8047.