Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Five halftime thoughts: George Mason

1.) Gulp. We knew George Mason would be revved up and ready to go after getting embarrassed by the Flying Dutchmen last month, but even we didn’t fear this. The Patriots are shutting down Charles Jenkins (4-of-12 from the field) and hitting everything in sight offensively (17-of-31 overall, 6-of-10 from 3-point land, and even 9-of-10 from the free throw line). We specialize in homer optimism here, but this first half did not go well for the Dutchmen, who would really be in a world of hurt if they weren’t 9-of-9 from the free throw line.

2.) Mo Cassara will have his hands full trying to come up with a way to stop the Patriots and Andre Cornelius (16 points) and Ryan Pearson (13 points) in particular in the second half. We saw a lot of defensive specialist Yves Jules in the first half but nothing seemed to slow Mason.

3.) Jenkins looks exhausted already, hitting the front rim on numerous shots and going 0-for-5 from 3-point land. Isaiah Tate did a great job on him before picking up his third foul but Cam Long forced an airball on the final shot of the half. Jenkins has to find some way to get untracked or else I’ll be searching for the last time Hofstra gave up 100 in conference and for different ways to write WAAAAAH MASON RUNS UP THE SCORE WAHHHHH.

4.) At the same time, someone will have to step up and compliment Jenkins. Mike Moore has a couple 3-pointers but three fouls. David Imes was involved early and had a couple nifty baskets underneath but was otherwise quiet. Shemiye McLendon has a team-high four rebounds but three turnovers.

5.) This threatens to get ugly. If the Dutchmen can’t come back, can they at least stay on the fringes like they did against VCU and avoid a demoralizing final score?

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.

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