Eagles Go Cold In Second Half; Lose 86-66 To George Mason

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia–Winthrop’s second half field goal shooting was as ice cold as the temperature outside the Halifax Metro Centre Friday night as the Eagles fell to George Mason 86-66 in the Rogers AT&T NCAA Showcase after trailing by only a point at halftime.

Down just 33-32 at the break, the Eagles connected on just 5 of 30 shots from the floor for 17 percent after a 46 percent field goal performance in the first half. Winthrop, which came into the game shooting 41 percent on the year managed to hit on just 30 percent for the game (16-54).

The Eagles shooting was so cold that by midway through the final period, Winthrop (4-7) had scored only one field goal with that coming on a dunk at the 14:33 mark by Greg Lewis who led the Eagles in scoring with 17 points. By that time George Mason (6-3) had shot out to a 47-37 lead and were never threatened the rest of the way.

When Lewis scored Winthrop’s second basket of the half with a layup at the 8:58 mark, the Eagles were down 62-40. The senior, who missed practice on Thursday and did not start the game because of flu-like symptoms, also pulled down 10 rebounds in 28 minutes of action. Tyrone Walker also recorded a double-double for the Eagles with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

"Greg played well and he competed," said head coach Gregg Marshall, who didn’t know until mid-afternoon if Lewis would be available for any playing time. "He is certainly a warrior and wanted to compete. He got winded and tired and wasn’t able to play his normal stint of minutes, but I figured on game day he would be ready to go."

But the inside-outside duo of 6-10 Jesse Young and freshman guard Lamar Butler proved too much for the cold-shooting Eagles. Young, a Canada native, kept the Patriots on top in the first half with 13 points. He finished with game-highs in points with 24 and rebounds with 13. Butler came off the bench to score a career high with 20 points and was 5 of 9 from three-point range.

Jon Larranaga, the son of Patriots’ head coach Jim Larranaga, was also in double figures with 12 points.

"We were playing a quality team and Jesse Young had a homecoming to remember," said Marshall. "I’ve got two of my assistants who didn’t make the trip out recruiting and I hope they can find us a player like No. 22, Butler. That’s exactly what we need."

While the Eagles had trouble finding the basket in the second half, George Mason had little trouble finding the twine as the Patriots connected on 61 percent of its shots and finished the game connecting on 29 of 57 for 51 percent.

The shooting performance was not the only concern Marshall addressed in his post-game remarks. He was not pleased with his point guard play that produced nine of the team’s 15 turnovers.

"I told the team at halftime there were three or four keys that we needed to have and number one was to get better point guard play. If we don’t then we won’t be very good and that’s just the bottom line. We’ve got to be able to take care of the basketball," he said. "We had 11 turnovers from the point guard position against South Carolina State and we had nine tonight and we’re not going to beat too many teams doing that."

Winthrop will not be in action again until Jan. 9 when the Eagles open Big South Conference play at Radford in a battle of the two preseason favorites to win the championship.